Epidemiological, laboratory, diagnostic and public health aspects of human brucellosis in western Iran.

OBJECTIVE

To determine brucellosis's epidemiologic, laboratory, diagnostic and public health features considering brucellosis is endemic in Azna County, western Iran.

METHODS

This descriptive cross-sectional study was investigated on 43 patients with brucellosis in Azna County. The subjects were the patients with symptoms correspondent with brucellosis and positive Wright and 2ME tests. A questionnaire about demographic, epidemiological and laboratory findings was filled in. Afterwards, patients were treated using usual antimicrobial drugs regimen. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16.

RESULTS

Forty-three subjects were found to be positive in laboratory tests. Incidence of Brucellosis was 59.31 per hundred thousand population. About 34.9% of patients were female and 65.1% male. Nearly 95.2 % of human cases were living in rural and 4.8 % in urban areas. Around 20.9% of patients had history of animal contact. The commonest transmission was unpasteurized dairy products (79.1%). The most contagious seasons were summer and spring (60.3%). The most common age group was 15-24 (27.9%), and about 60.5% of the patients were between 15-44 years old. Disease was more common among housewives (30.2%) and farmers (20.9%). The majority of the patients had Wright test titre=1:320 (54.1%) and 2ME test titre=1:160 (56.1%) in serological titration. Doxycycline with Rifampin was used for treatment of the greatest of patients (60.4%).

CONCLUSIONS

In order to control this zoonotic disease, close cooperation of health and veterinary organizations is necessary.