We report a four-year-old girl, previously splenectomized because of thalassemia major, who was admitted with gastroenteritis, abdominal pain and high grade fever. At laparotomy she was found to have appendicitis and mesenteric adenitis. Blood and stool cultures grew yersinia enterocolitica. Clinical course was favourable under Ampicillin-Gentamycin treatment. The importance of iron metabolism in the pathogenesis of yersinia sepsis is stressed, being this topic reviewed.