Abstract
We report two cases of brucellosis in patients hospitalized in distinct towns of French Guiana, a french overseas territory localized on the Northeastern shore of South America. Both patients were clandestine Brazilian goldminers who had recently arrived in Guiana after passing through neighbouring Suriname and living in the deep in the Amazonian Forest. Both were men aged 39 and 45, respectively. The clinical pictures were febrile lumbar pain for the first, and deterioration of general condition and febrile low back pain evolving for 10 months, revealing L4-L5 spondylodiscitis with epiduritis and extension of the abscess to the psoas for the second. The diagnosis of brucellosis was made by blood culture or puncture of the psoas abscess, respectively. Both cases evolved favourably under rifampicin + doxycycline during their follow-up. Extensive phenotypical and genetic characterization of the bacterial isolates revealed that they represent a novel species of Brucella for which we propose the name Brucella amazoniensis sp. nov. These cases are very probably due to zoonotic transmission from a still unknown animal reservoir of the deep rainforest. Medical practitioners and professionals working in contact with the wildlife should thus be aware of the existence of such pathogens in this region of the world, which is recovered for more than 95% by the Amazonian Forest.
