Introduction:Brucella is a zoonotic infection commonly diagnosed by isolation of the organism from blood culture or positive serological testing. It is an uncommon cause of a pyrexia of unknown origin in the United Kingdom.Case presentation: We describe the case of a 14-year-old girl with no history of travel who presented with pyrexia, weight loss, arthralgia, multiple splenic abscesses and a subsequent pleural effusion, the latter of which isolated a Brucella species on 16S rRNA PCR. The patient responded well to initiation of treatment for brucellosis and on repeat imaging, after 3 months, the splenic abscesses had resolved.Conclusion: This unique case demonstrates uncommon complications of brucellosis and the challenges of diagnosing the organism, the latter of which can be alleviated by the utilization of molecularbased technologies. This patient had a negative serology result for brucellosis, which highlights the need to interpret serology results with caution in non-endemic regions for brucellosis.

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We present the case of a 10-month-old male infant who presented to accident and emergency with unexplained bruising of the ear. Initial blood tests showed no clotting or platelet abnormalities and non-accidental injury investigation commenced. He was subsequently reviewed by the dermatology team who suggested the diagnosis of acute haemorrhagic oedema of infancy presumably triggered by a viral or bacterial infection, and the clinical findings fit this diagnosis.