Utility of automated blood cultures in the diagnosis of childhood brucellosis

Brucellosis, a zoonoses, is an important yet underdiagnosed and underreported cause of fever of unknown origin (FUO) in India. This may be both due to lack of awareness and lack of simple diagnostic tests for confirmation. The serological and molecular diagnostic tests may pose trouble in interpretation due to lack of standardisation. Culture is the gold standard and needs 6 weeks, which can be minimised with automated blood culture system. We describe four cases of culture-proven childhood brucellosis in the past 1 year. In our case series, fever and lymphadenopathy were seen in 100%, arthralgia in 50% and hepatomegaly in 75%. Use of automated blood culture system and good clinician–microbiologist communication aided in early diagnosis (<5 days) and appropriate treatment. On follow-up, all the cases are doing well.