Pulmonary infections due to brucellosis in childhood

Abstract

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