Prevalence of Brucellosis in Patients with Fever of Unknown Origin: A Crossectional Study in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Brucellosis is an important re-emerging zoonosis with a worldwide distribution. It is a common but often neglected disease in India. Objectives: To detect prevalence of brucellosis in clinically suspected cases of Fever of Unknown Origin and to compare the diagnostic efficacy of ELISA and Conventional blood culture. Material And Methods: Blood samples from 100 suspected cases of fever of unknown origin (FUO) were subjected to Conventional blood culture and ELISA. Results: Out of 100 suspected cases, 6% cases were positive for Brucella Isolates by ELISA whereas none of the blood cultures by Conventional Castaneda technique yielded any isolates. Males in the middle age-group constituted majority (66.66%) of the patients and maximum (83.33%) were from rural background. Risk factor such as contact with Livestock (83.33%) followed by ingestion of raw milk (16.66%) was found to be more significantly associated with Brucellosis. Animal attendants (50%) followed by veterinarians(33.33%) including both doctors and Para veterinarian’s staff and dairy farmer (16.6%) dealing with milking and handling of milk products were found to be more prone to brucellosis. Conclusion: ELISA proved as a reliable and fast method to identify the Brucella isolates in suspected patients of fever of unknown origin as compared to conventional blood culture method .