Brucellosis can affect the eye and lead to serious ocular complications. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment should be considered in endemic areas.
Brucellosis can affect almost any part of your body, including your reproductive system, liver, heart and central nervous system. Chronic brucellosis may cause complications in just one organ or throughout your body. Possible complications include: Inflammation of the inner lining of the heart chambers (endocarditis).
Animals that are most commonly infected include sheep, cattle, goats, pigs, and dogs, among others. Brucellosis in the U.S.
Symptoms and Signs of Brucellosis
Onset may be sudden, with chills and fever, severe headache, joint and low back pain, malaise, and occasionally diarrhea. Or onset may be insidious, with mild prodromal malaise, muscle pain, headache, and pain in the back of the neck, followed by a rise in evening temperature.
Brucellosis can be diagnosed in a laboratory by finding bacteria in samples of blood, bone marrow or other bodily fluids. Serological tests can also be done to detect antibodies against the bacteria.
The symptoms usually improve and are completely gone within about two to six months. However, the prognosis is poor in people who develop organ changes or complications such as heart damage, neurological, or genitourinary problems caused by chronic Brucella infection.
In some cases, brucellosis may affect the central nervous system (neurobrucellosis). Symptoms of neurobrucellosis include inflammation of the membranes (meninges) surrounding the brain and spinal cord (meningitis) and inflammation of the brain (encephalitis).
Brucellosis is a disease, caused by bacteria, which affects many different kinds of animals – including sheep, goats, cattle, deer, elk, pigs, and dogs. However, it can also cause a disease with flu-like symptoms in humans. People with brucellosis may develop fever, sweats, headaches, back pains, and physical weakness.
Brucellosis is an infectious disease caused by Brucella species. It is known by many other names, including remitting fever, undulant fever, Mediterranean fever, Maltese fever, Gibraltar fever, Crimean fever, goat fever, and Bang disease.
Doctors usually confirm a diagnosis of brucellosis by testing blood or bone marrow for the brucella bacteria or by testing blood for antibodies to the bacteria. To help detect complications of brucellosis, your doctor may order additional tests, including: X-rays. X-rays can reveal changes in your bones and joints.
After acute brucellosis infection, symptoms persist in a minority of patients for more than 1 year. Such patients are defined as having chronic brucellosis. Since no objective laboratory methods exist to confirm the presence of chronic disease, these patients suffer delays in both diagnosis and treatment.
Depending on the timing of treatment and severity of illness, recovery may take a few weeks to several months. Death from brucellosis is rare, occurring in no more than 2% of all cases. Generally, the antibiotics doxycycline and rifampin are recommended in combination for a minimum of 6-8 weeks.
The majority of the patients had a positive titre of Brucella melitensis and abortus. In 42% of the patients radiographs of the thoraco-lumbar spine showed bony changes. This study stresses the importance of brucellosis as a cause of backache.
However, brucellosis can also show some atypical symptoms which prompt patients to seek treatment, such as symptoms of the digestive system (abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, anorexia, jaundice, etc.) [19], nervous system (dizziness and headache, neck stiffness, cranial nerve damages, etc.)
“Bang's Disease” is a name that was given to cattle Brucellosis caused by the bacteria Brucella abor- tus. Bangs was the last name of the Danish veterinarian who first isolated Brucella abortus as the causative agent back in 1897.
Person-to-person spread of brucellosis is extremely rare. Infected mothers who are breast-feeding may transmit the infection to their infants. Sexual transmission has been rarely reported. While uncommon, transmission may also occur via tissue transplantation or blood transfusions.
Although neurological symptoms in brucellosis are frequent, central nervous system (CNS) involvement is uncommon. Five patients with neurobrucellosis are presented. Three patients presented with meningoencephalitis, one with polyradiculoneuritis and one with myelitis and an eighth nerve palsy.
A study on 400 brucellosis patients in Kuwait showed 6% of the patients developed psychiatric complications with depression and anxiety predominantly in the chronic stage of the disease.
Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease caused by a Gram-negative bacillus of the Brucella genus with multisystem involvement, primarily affecting the reticuloendothelial system, joints, heart and kidneys. Although the disease can be spread by inhalation, pulmonary involvement is rare.
For simple infections, doxycycline (100 mg PO twice daily for 6 weeks) may be the most appropriate monotherapy; however, relapse rates with such monotherapy approach 40% and as a result, rifampin (600-900 mg/day) is usually added.
Brucellosis is a reportable condition in all states and territories. Brucellosis cases must be reported to jurisdictions when identified by a healthcare provider, hospital, or laboratory.
Disinfectants with bleach, at least 70 percent ethanol, iodine/alcohol solutions, glutaraldehyde or formaldehyde will effectively kill the bacteria.
Brucella evades the host immune response by affecting macrophage function. Brucella can inhibit IFN-γ mediated phagocytosis and TNF-α expression in macrophages [51]. Infected macrophages can produce proinflammatory factors (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-12) and inflammatory chemokines (GRO-α, IL-8, MCP-1).
Lethality: Brucellosis has a very low mortality rate, less than 5% of untreated cases, with most deaths caused by endocarditis or meningitis.