Epidemiology, Clinical Manifestations, Laboratory Findings and Outcome of Brucellosis in Hospitalized Children in Northwest of Iran

• Main Authors: Iman Vafaii, Mohammad Ahangarzadeh Rezaee, Babak Abdinia, Kasra Kolahdouzan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Mashhad University of Medical Sciences 2018-10-01
• Series: Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Journal
• Subjects: Brucellosis; Children; Infection
• Online Access: http://psj.mums.ac.ir/article_11703_d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e.pdf

Introduction: Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease, which is associated with great economic and general health concerns. This is an endemic disease in Iran, and thus this study aimed to investigate its epidemiology and trend over a ten-year period in children hospitalized in northwest Iran Materials and Methods: A prospective study was conducted on children hospitalized with brucellosis diagnosis in the Tabriz Children's Hospital. Information of the patients, such as type of living place, age, history of consuming unpasteurized dairy products, family history of brucellosis in the past year, clinical symptoms, Wright's test, 2ME test, Coombs Wright test, onset date, diagnosis date, and treatment failure, was collected Results: Over a ten-year period, 59 medical records were extracted, out of which 21 subjects (35.6%) were female and 38 subjects (64.4%) were male. The mean age of involvement was 80.5 months. Among the patients, 66.1% and 33.9% were from rural and urban areas, respectively. In addition, 16.9% and 22% of patients had a history of contact with livestock, and 22% had a history of consuming unpasteurized dairy products. Moreover, 78.6% of patients had Wright’s test titers of ≥1:160 and 91.8% had Coombs test titers of ≥1:160. Blood culture results of 19 patients were available, out of which 21.1% were culture-positive Conclusion: Epidemiological studies assessing important risk factors for the spread of brucellosis in different regions across the world are very effective in disease control and prevention.This is the first report about epidemiology of children brucellosis in northwest Iran