Salmonella Osteomyelitis

Salmonella infection can cause four predominant clinical syndromes: enteric fever, acute gastroenteritis, bacteraemia with or without metastatic infection, and the asymptomatic carrier state. Salmonella as an aetiological agent in osteomyelitis is essentially rare and salmonella osteomyelitis in itself is predominantly seen in patients with haemoglobinopathies such as sickle cell disease or thalassemia. There are very few cases reported in the literature in which salmonella osteomyelitis is seen in otherwise healthy individuals. We describe here a case of salmonella osteomyelitis in a young gentleman with no significant comorbidities who presented with fever and severe back pain, having returned from recent foreign travel. It is therefore important to consider uncommon pathogens in the differential diagnosis of travellers with prolonged fever and insidious symptoms.