Zoonotic disease with night sweats with a strong, peculiar, moldy odor

Q: Which Zoonotic disease may cause night sweats with a strong, peculiar, moldy odor?

Answer: Brucellosis

Brucellosis is the most common zoonotic disease worldwide, and as the world is getting more globalized, the western world's physicians are now encountering it frequently. It is mostly transmitted by domesticated to human animals like cattle, sheep, goats, camels, or pigs. The most common transmission is via unpasteurized milk or by contact. The other names for this disease are 'undulant fever,' 'Mediterranean fever,' or 'Malta fever.' It is often hard to diagnose as the incubation period lasts weeks to months. 

Signs and symptoms include fever, malaise, night sweats which may have a strong, peculiar, moldy odor, arthralgias, weight loss, low back pain, headache, dizziness, anorexia, dyspepsia, abdominal pain, cough, depression, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, and/or lymphadenopathy. Many times fever pattern may be spiking and relapsing and associated with rigors. This may confuse clinicians with malaria.

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References:

1. Pappas G, Akritidis N, Bosilkovski M, Tsianos E. Brucellosis. N Engl J Med 2005; 352:2325.

2. Bosilkovski M, Krteva L, Dimzova M, et al. Human brucellosis in Macedonia - 10 years of clinical experience in endemic region. Croat Med J 2010; 51:327.

3. Young EJ. Brucellosis: current epidemiology, diagnosis, and management. Curr Clin Top Infect Dis 1995; 15:115.