Best Practice for Prolonged Fever in Primary Care Setting: Close Follow-Up or Empiric Antibiotic Therapy?.
- Author:
Mahnaz SANDOUGHI
1
;
Seyed Amirhossein FAZELI
;
Fatemeh NASERI-RAMROUDI
;
Farzaneh BARZKAR
Author Information
- Publication Type:Case Report
- Keywords: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus; Brucellosis; Fever
- MeSH: Arthralgia; Brucellosis; Communicable Diseases; Diagnosis; Fever*; Follow-Up Studies*; General Practitioners; Humans; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic; Male; Practice Guidelines as Topic*; Primary Health Care*
- From:Korean Journal of Family Medicine 2018;39(5):318-321
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: The management of prolonged fever in low-socioeconomic-status areas by primary care providers such as general practitioners is challenging. Given the endemic nature of many infectious diseases, physicians typically start empirical antibiotic therapy following a limited diagnostic workup including serologic examinations. Herein, we report the case of a young male patient with prolonged fever and arthralgia initially diagnosed with and treated for brucellosis but with a confirmed diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus on follow-up. This unique case shows that close follow-up is the best practice for managing prolonged fever in cases with non-specific laboratory findings.
