Reviewer response for version 1
The authors have reported two cases meliodosis in an area in which this disease was not believed to occur and make an important point about paucity of diagnostic technology in the region.
Abstract:
- “ We report the first two cases of fatal melioidosis in this region... ” 
The phrasing of this sentence implies that these are the first actual cases of fatal meliod in the region, rather than the first formally diagnosed cases. 
It currently implies that Meliod is a new/emerging disease to this region rather than a new diagnosis of a condition which is likely to have been present, but unrecognised.
Presentation:
- “ Presented below are two fatal case reports... ” 
The case reports were not fatal. 
"Presented below are two case reports of fatal...” would be better.
- The cases are a little brief on detail and if possible, it would be nice to make the corrections/additions suggested by the other two reviewers. 
Having said that, the weakness of the case descriptions do not detract from the message regarding the description of Meliod in this setting.
Diagnosis:
- This is a challenging condition to diagnose and it is important to have a little more detail here – reassuring readers that this really was B. pseudomallei is the most important part of this paper. 
The authors should have described the colonial morphology of the pathogen as B. pseudomallei has a characteristic appearance (although I would discourage them from re-culturing it simply to answer this point unless there is a safe laboratory environment to do so). 
It would also have been useful to record the API20NE score (both the 7 digit number and the percentage ID).W
What does SMRU stand for? 
Lastly, what confirmatory test did MORU perform?
Management:
- It is a little unusual that management follows the discussion. 
In particular, the last 2 sentences are conclusions and they should be separated and labelled as such.
Structure
Recap
Structure
Recap
Recap
Recap
Structure
Recap
Weakness
Todo
Todo
Other
Structure
Todo
Todo
Todo
Todo
Todo
Structure
Weakness
Todo