Burkitt lymphoma presenting as cardiac tamponade in a patient infected with HIV: a case report

Febrile illness has a broad differential diagnosis, particularly among persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Infectious complications of immunodeficiency must always be high on this differential, but clinicians must also consider HIV-associated malignancies as an explanation for fever in this population. We present the case of a 48-year-old man with HIV initially thought to have osteomyelitis who was subsequently diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma presenting as cardiac tamponade.