Abstract

Acute brucellosis among household members of index cases due to common food sources is reported. The aim was to screen family members and coworkers of patients with acute brucellosis to detect unrecognized cases. A descriptive study was conducted among contact cases of acute brucellosis patients. Five millilitre of venous blood samples were taken from contact cases to measure Brucella antibody IgM, IgG, and IgA. Thirty six index cases had a mean number of (4.5± 2.5) contact cases. A total of 117 contact cases [59 (50.5%) male, 58 (49.5%) female] were enrolled. Positive IgM ,IgA and IgG Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) titers were detected in [7(6%)], [ 25(21.5%)] and [31( 26.5%)] of contact cases respectively. The seroprevalence was detected in 40 (34.2%) of the 117 contact cases. Thirty eight (32.5%) of the contact cases manifested various symptoms. The positive seroprevalence (34.2%) and symptomatic individuals among contact cases (35%) in this study showed that household members are not the single most important identifiable risk, and screening of other shared common food sources is necessary.

Key words: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, brucellosis, household members, screening.