Clinical featuresBrucellosis can be subclinical, acute, subacute, and chronic. It can present itself with nonspecific symptoms such as fever, night sweats, loss of appetite, weight loss, weakness, headache, and polyarthritis (2,5-7). Brucellosis should be considered as a differential diagnosis for fevers of unknown origin. Debilitating conditions such as arthralgia, myalgia, and back pain affects around half of the patients. The incubation period is 2-3 weeks. Physical findings may vary depending on the duration of the disease. Systemic brucellosis sometimes can be complicated with meningitis, endocarditis, septic arthritis, and osteomyelitis. These complications are not extremely rare. A large meta-analysis reported the prevalence of endocarditis and neurobrucellosis as 1% and 4%, respectively (6). Osteoarticular complications are the most common complications of brucellosis (2,6,8).Relapse can occur 2-3 months after the treatment and can be detected with serologic tests and blood culture positivity. Relapse rate is common in cases treated with a single antibiotic regimen and short-term treatment.
SUMMARYAlthough brucellosis is an old disease, it is still challenging for physicians. In this review, we discussed common pitfalls of brucellosis.