PREVALENCE OF BRUCELLOSIS AMONG FEBRILE PATIENTS IN RAWALPINDI / ISLAMABAD AREA

Abstract

Human brucellosis, an important zoonosis is a chronic occupational disease that mostly affects butchers, slaughter-house workers, animal keepers, veterinarians and laboratory workers. The causative agent is transmitted through direct contact with infected tissues or fluids by infected animals, ingesting unpasteurized milk and meat products, and inhalation of infectious aerosols. It can be transmitted vertically or horizontally due to close contacts like sexual intercourse (especially in animals but rare in humans). In humans, the disease generally, begins as an acute febrile illness with non-specific flu-like signs and then leads to intermittent fever with manifestations such as cardiovascular, genitourinary, haematopoietic, nervous, skeletal, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, ocular, and cutaneous involvement The objective of the study is to determine the frequency of serologically positive brucellosis among febrile patients at Rawalpindi / Islamabad area. Hospital based, observational, case control study in patients of Brucellosis. The Department of Microbiology at Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi Pakistan from October 2020 to January 2021. Direct agglutination test and Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent assay, both tests were used for serology of brucellosis. Out of 207 patients, 19 patients were found positive for Brucellosis whereas 188 were negative. It has also been reported that out of 19 positive patients, 11 were males while 8 were females. We found that the majority of patients were found negative for Brucellosis. The frequency of Brucellosis among febrile patients was high. In conclusion we postulated that the frequency of Brucellosis among febrile patients is 9.2%. Out of these positive cases, 58% patients were male while on the other hand 42% were female, showing male predominance.