Evaluation of Clinical Findings and Treatment of Childhood

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 an