Pancytopenia as a rare complication of acute Brucellosis: A case report

Human Brucellosis still challenges many physicians, especially in developing countries where it is still a very common, but sometimes ignored disease. Its reemergence in developed countries and its status as a class B bioterrorist agent has recently attracted much interest. Having over 500,000 new cases annually, Brucellosis is known as one of the most common zoonotic infections in the world and “the great imitator” because of many clinical and hematological manifestations. Brucellosis is still endemic in many developing countries and remains under-diagnosed and sometimes missed reported. Although this province (Kurdistan, Iran) is a Brucella endemic area with a very high prevalence and incidence rate, except for very few and negligible case reports, we did not find any reports or epidemiological study regarding this zoonotic infection. This is the first reported case of Brucellosis with pancytopenia from this western province of Iran which has been neglected. Our case was a 16-year-old girl referred with protracted fever during the last month and undetermined diagnosis. She also suffered from generalized pain, pale skin, sweating, anorexia, and weight loss. After clinical surveying, taking history, and physical examination, Brucella infection was suspected. Diagnosis confirmed by standard tube agglutination test (STA), 1/640. The patient was successfully treated with doxycycline, rifampicin, and ceftriaxone.