Prevalence of Seropositivity of Brucellosis Among Occupationally Exposed Workers

Abstract

Objectives:The purpose of this study was to investigate the seroprevalence of brucellosis among high-risk individuals, consisting of veterinarians, para-veterinarians, butchers and animal services workers. Methods: The present work was carried out at El Nil health insurance hospital, by using the recently developed indirect enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for antibodies to Brucella abortus for high risk individuals with occupational exposure to animals (220) workers in addition to detailed history and clinical examination was done for included group. Results: seropositive group was in the age group of 20 up to 30, while majority of the negative group was above 40 years , with statistically significant difference in between. Seronegative group had longer work duration and shorter working hours compared to seropositive group with statistically significant difference in between . Animal services workers had the highest prevalence of seropositivity among other groups, followed by veterinarians assistant or support workers. More than 45% of the studied seropositive cases were asymptomatic, while fever only found in 2 cases out of 35 seropositive (5.7%). Low back pain was the second most frequent symptom among the studied cases. Working in animal services in addition to young age (less than 30 years) and working hours more than 5 hours per day were considered the most important independent predictors of seropoisitivity. Conclusions: younger age groups together with longer working hours correlated with seropositivity, Majority of seropositive cases were asymptomatic and this necessitate routine serology for diagnosis among high risk workers . The highest prevalence of seropositivity was present among animal services and veterinarian support workers.