Sero-prevalence of human brucellosis in high risk individuals and normal individuals of Sylhet District in Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: Brucellosis is an important re-emerging zoonosis which remains an uncontrolled public health problem worldwide because of serious diminution of manpower, animals and essential foodstuffs. Transmission to human can occurs through contact with infected animals or animal products. It is a poorly recognised health problem in this country though there is persistence of large reservoirs of the organism among livestock such as sheep, goat and cows creating fertile field for unabated transmission. But data on it’s transmission potential and prevalence in this country specially in Sylhet region remained scarce. In the absence of supportive epidemiological information physicians on most of the cases have to depend on their clinical judgement to suggest relevant tests.   Objective: The study was conducted to compare the sero-prevalence of human brucellosis among high risk and normal individuals. Methods: This cross-sectional, comparative study was conducted amongst a total of randomly selected 90 participants including 65 high risk individuals during the period of July 2016-June 2017. Brucella IgM and IgG antibody in the serum were determine by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) technique. Results: Among the 65 participants of the high risk group, Brucella IgM and IgG seropositivity were found in 6 (9.2%) and 32(49.2%) cases respectively.  On the other hand, no IgM seropositivity, but 10 (40.0%) IgG seropositivity cases were found in normal group. No significant difference (p>0.05) was found between the groups. Considering occupations, the highest 11 (61.1%) Brucella IgG seropositivity was found among the 18 dairy farm workers (p>0.05). Participants with 0-5 years duration of job had highest seropositivity 7 (70%) among high risk group and 3 (50%) among normal group. No significant association was identified between seropositivity and duration of occupation, education (p>0.05). Conclusions: Based on the study findings, it may be concluded that the extent of human brucellosis should not be ignored, and measures like awareness building, vaccination, transboundary screening needed to prevent and control the disease in animals and limit human transmission. Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull 2020; 46(1): 35-40