Introduction:

Perinatal tuberculosis (PT) refers to the infection that occurs at birth or in the neonatal period. This article reviews a patient with PT, in whom it was suspected that the infection occurred because the mother had lesions compatible with tuberculous mastitis.

Case description:

We present a patient of a two-month-old infant from Acapulco, Guerrero, who had a clinical picture of several weeks of evolution with fever up to 40oC, as well as adenopathies in the left cervical region and hepatomegaly. Bacilloscopy of gastric juice led to the diagnosis of tuberculosis. At the same time, his mother had a lesion in the left breast that progressively increased in size and mastitis was suspected, so breastfeeding was interrupted. Because the lesion increased, a biopsy was performed and Mycobacterium tuberculosis was detected by PCR. Therefore, it was considered that his son probably contracted tuberculosis by contact.

Conclusions:

The diagnosis of PT is a clinical challenge, given the non-specific signs and symptoms. In this patient, the association of lesions in the mother’s breast helped to establish the diagnosis.