I am an infectious disease specialist at Memorial Healthcare System. I care for patients with a variety of infectious illnesses and specialize in managing infections in patients who have undergone solid organ and bone marrow transplants. Other areas of interest include herpesviruses, especially cytomegalovirus, mold infections and multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.

I am originally from Peru, where the high prevalence of infectious and tropical diseases immediately sparked my interest in this field. During medical school, I had the opportunity to work in research of infections such as brucellosis and neurocysticercosis. During my general infectious disease training in the U.S., I became increasingly interested in infections affecting transplant populations, so I ended up dedicating an extra year to subspecializing in this field. During that time, I also participated in the research of immune monitoring testing in cytomegalovirus and, more recently, in diagnostics for Aspergillosis and other molds.

I enjoy working in this field because it requires integrating medical and basic knowledge acquired at multiple phases of our training to diagnose and manage our patients’ illnesses. It also provides a unique opportunity to establish a connection with our patients and help them in a meaningful way.

In addition to providing patient care and performing research, I often present and write about topics in the field. I am also involved in various medical organizations and a reviewer for several medical journals and publications.

Hospital Affiliations

• Memorial Hospital Miramar
• Memorial Hospital Pembroke
• Memorial Hospital West
• Memorial Regional Hospital

Gender

• Male

Languages

• Spanish
• English

Education

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, 2004

Residency

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, 2011, Internal Medicine

Fellowships

Mayo Clinic, 2013, Infectious Disease
Mayo Clinic, 2014, Infectious Disease
Mayo Clinic Rochester, 2015, Infectious Disease

Certifications

American Board of Internal Medicine-Infectious Disease
American Board of Internal Medicine-Internal Medicine

Publications

Please view Dr. Dante Melendez-Lecca’s publications on PubMed.

Professional Organizations

• American College of Physicians
• American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation
• American Society of Transplantation
• Infectious Diseases Society of America
• Mayo Fellows Association

Presentations

• Melendez D, Osmon D, Greenwood-Quaintance K, Hanssen A, Patel R. Comparison of the 2011 Musculoskeletal Infection Society (MSIS), the 2013 International Consensus Meeting (ICM) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Diagnostic Criteria for Prosthetic Joint Infection (PJI). Infectious Diseases Society of America Meeting, Philadelphia, PA. 2014.
• Melendez D. HIV and Solid Organ Transplantation. Internal Medicine Grand Rounds Presentation, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK. 2019.
• Melendez D. Transplant Infectious Diseases for the General Internist. Internal Medicine Grand Rounds Presentation, Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK. 2016.
• Melendez D. A Case of Multiple Organ Mucormycosis Involvement and Brief Review of the Mayo Clinic Experience. Infectious Diseases/Hematology Combined Grand Rounds, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. 2013.
• Melendez D. A Case of Disseminated Varicella Zoster in a Post-Autologous Bone Marrow Transplant Patient and Need for Revision of the Mayo Clinic Antiviral Prophylaxis Protocol. Infectious Diseases/Hematology Combined Grand Rounds, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. 2013.
• Eric Bhaimia, DO, Zachary A. Yetmar MD, Veronica Dioverti MD, Dante Melendez MD, Elitza Theel PhD, D(ABBM), Raymund R. Razonable MD. Clinical Utility of a Cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific T Cell Assay in Assessing the Risk of Post Prophylaxis CMV Infection and Post-Treatment Relapse. Poster presented at the Melendez-Lecca, Page 9 Infectious Diseases Society Meeting, Washington, D.C. 2022.
• Melendez D, Greenwood-Quaintance K, Hanssen A, Patel R. A Genus-/Group-Specific Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Panel for the Detection of Corynebacterium sp., Streptococcus sp., Propionibacterium sp., Enterococcus sp. and Staphylococcus sp. in Synovial Fluid for Prosthetic Joint Infection Diagnosis. Poster presented at the American Society of Microbiology Meeting, Boston, MA. 2014,
• Melendez D, Osmon D, Greenwood-Quaintance KE, Hanssen A, Patel R. Comparison of the Musculoskeletal Infection Society and Infectious Diseases Society of America Diagnostic Criteria for Prosthetic Joint Infection. Poster presented at the Infectious Diseases Society Meeting, San Francisco, CA. 2013.
• Melendez D, Uhl J, Greenwood-Quaintance KE, Hanssen A, Rangarajan S, Patel R. Molecular Microbiologic Detection of Prosthetic Joint Infection Using the Abbott PLEX-ID System on Synovial Fluid. Poster presented at the American Society of Microbiology Meeting, Denver, CO. 2013.
• Melendez D. Disseminated Histoplasmosis and Pneumocystis Jiroeci Pneumonia in the Setting of Hypercortisolism Secondary to Cushing’s disease. Clinical Vignette Presented at the Midwest Infectious Disease Fellows Forum, Minneapolis, MN. 2013
• Melendez D. Persistent Babesiosis in an Immunosuppressed Patient. Clinical Vignette Presented at the Midwest Infectious Disease Fellows Forum, Minneapolis, MN. 2013.