infections
Brucellosis
Symptoms of Brucellosis
Symptoms of brucellosis can begin 5 days to several months after people are exposed toBrucellabacteria. People typically have A fever, which may return repeatedly for months and sometimes years Symptoms may begin suddenly with chills, night sweats, a severe headache, low back pain, bone and joint pain, and sometimes diarrhea. Or symptoms may begin gradually, with a feeling of being slightly ill, muscle pain, headache, and pain in the back of the neck. The fever may come and go for several weeks. Later symptoms include loss of appetite, weight loss, severe constipation, abdominal pain, joint pain, difficulty sleeping, weakness, irritability, and depression. Sometimes infection develops in the brain, tissues that cover the brain and spinal cord (meninges), back bones (vertebrae), long bones (such as the thighbone), joints, heart valves, or other organs. If people do not develop infections in these organs and tissues, they usually recover in 2 to 3 weeks, even without treatment. However, in some, the infection persists. Less than 5% of people with brucellosis die, usually when the brain, meninges, or heart valves are infected. 