Brucellosis induced acute hemolytic anemia in a severe vitamin b12 deficient individual presenting as pancytopenia: a case report

Human brucellosis is a common multi-system disease with a wide variety of clinical manifestations. Brucellosis presenting as pancytopenia due to acute hemolytic anemia is rarely reported in literature. Here we report a case of young gentleman who had fever and recurrent jaundice over the last one year, presented with pancytopenia and later diagnosed to have brucellosis induced hemolytic anemia in a vitamin B12 deficient individual. Brucella IgM was 15.83 U/ml (positive >12U/ml), however his blood and bone marrow cultures were negative. He was treated with doxycycline and rifampicin for 6 weeks, thereby showing complete resolution of his pancytopenia with no further episodes of hemolysis.