Brucellosis in 418 patients from the Balkan Peninsula: exposure-related differences in clinical manifestations, laboratory test results, and therapy outcome

Abstract

Human brucellosis is a serious problem in the Republic of Macedonia presenting with a high percentage of localized forms, relapses and therapeutic failures. The risk factor for acquiring the disease had no influence on the outcome.

Brucellosis; Study of 200 Cases of Brucellosis

“…Gender and age distribution seen in our study is result of regional habits, mostly due to husbandry practices that predisposes females to acquire brucellosis in rural settings. Our results were similar to Fallatah et al 19 and Bosilkovski M et al 20 who respectively found that 60% and 46% patients were younger than 40 years.…”

“…This variation in physical findings is most probably linked to difference in disease duration. 29 Frequency of splenomegaly (28%) seen in our study was comparable with Dilek et al 30 (26.9%) but much lower than Bosilkovski et al 20 (51%). Frequency of hepatomegaly (18%) seen in our study was similar to that seen by Savas L et al 15 (20.7%).…”

Human Brucellosis in Macedonia – 10 Years of Clinical Experience in Endemic Region

“…In the recent decades with the use of appropriate antimicrobial treatment, the mortality rate has been lower than 1% (4,14,29,41,68). However, there are exceptions, in non-endemic countries as a result of the decreasing knowledge about the disease and in endemic regions of the developing world due to lack of medical care.…”

Challenges in Brucella bacteraemia

“…Isolation of the pathogen is of course essential for strain and biovar recognition (the latter extremely understudied although acknowledged as potentially interfering with clinical presentation and severity of the disease) [17]. A major obstacle is that the majority of endemic regions are poor both economically and in health infrastructure; blood culture facilities, let alone further identification practices, may not be available at all, as is the case, for example, with most Balkan countries [19]. Furthermore, Brucella is the most common laboratory-acquired pathogen, with a recent Spanish survey showing that 11% of a large number of clinical microbiologists and laboratory technicians had, at various times, contracted the disease in the laboratory [20].…”