Pulmonary infections due to brucellosis in childhood.

INTRODUCTION

Brucellosis is widely distributed zoonotic infection. Brucellosis is a multisystemic disease but pulmonary infection due to brucellosis is very rarely reported.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

We retrospectively evaluated our pediatric brucellosis cases between February 2014 and December 2015. The brucellosis patients with and without pulmonary infection were compared with each other.

RESULT: We detected pulmonary infection in 18 of the 98 brucellosis patients. There was no statistical significant difference between the brucellosis patients with and without a pulmonary infection as regards age, gender, and animal husbandry history. The laboratory findings including the Brucella Coombs agglutination titers were also similar. The most common chest X-ray findings were interstitial infiltration and hilar lymphadenopathy. All of our cases with pulmonary infection recovered with the usual anti-brucella treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

Brucellosis may cause a pulmonary infection more often than thought. The prognosis of respiratory brucellosis is good and the classic treatment regimen is appropriate.