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A deterministic model for the transmission dynamics of melioidosis disease in human population is designed and analyzed. The model is shown to exhibit the phenomenon of backward bifurcation, where a stable disease-free equilibrium co-exists with a stable endemic equilibrium when the basic reproduction number ℛ 0 is less than one. It is further shown that the backward bifurcation dynamics is caused by the reinfection of individuals who recovered from the disease and relapse. The existence of backward bifurcation implies that bringing down ℛ 0 to less than unity is not enough for disease eradication. In the absence of backward bifurcation, the global asymptotic stability of the disease-free equilibrium is shown whenever ℛ 0 < 1. For ℛ 0 > 1 , the existence of at least one locally asymptotically stable endemic equilibrium is shown. Sensitivity analysis of the model, using the parameters relevant to the transmission dynamics of the melioidosis disease, is discussed. Numerical experiments are presented to support the theoretical analysis of the model. In the numerical experimentations, it has been observed that screening and treating individuals in the exposed class has a significant impact on the disease dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]