Evaluation of Clinical Findings and Treatment of Childhood Brucellosis in Zahedan

Background and Aim: Human brucellosis caused by organisms of the genus Brucella, continues to be a major public health problem worldwide. The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical features and treatment in children with Brucellosis.
Materials and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the records of 45 children with brucellosis.
Results: In this study there were 31 males (68.8%) and 11 females (24.4%). Only 16.3% (8/42) of the patients were less than 5 years, 24% (12/42) were older than 5 years but ≤10 years and 59.7% (22/42) were older than 10 years but ≤15 years. Twenty eight of the children lived in rural areas and the remaining lived in urban areas. Ingestion of unpasteurized milk was reported in 24 (53.3%), contact with animal in 15 (33.3%), while 19 (42.2%) appeared to have no history of exposure to either. The most common symptom in 32 children was high grade fever reaching 39.5 °C, four had chills; intermittent and night fever was observed in 10 children. Sweating was complained in 76.4%; and arthralgia or arthritis involved mainly the knees and hips in 30 (83%) children. Sacroileitis was seen in 2 children (4.8%). Antibiotic treatment lasted for 28 days on average. There were no complications or relapses, except one and the final outcomes were excellent.
Conclusion: In the present study we attempted to evaluate the clinical and laboratory findings, treatment modalities and final outcome of brucellosis in children. It seems that better socioeconomic conditions and standards of living results in milder illness with no complications and better response to treatment.