Trends of reported human cases of brucellosis, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2004–2012

Abstract

Human brucellosis is an important zoonotic disease and is especially concerning in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), where livestock importation is significant. We analyzed reported human brucellosis disease trends in KSA over time to help policymakers understand the magnitude of the disease and guide the design of prevention and control measures. By using data from the national registry from 2004 to 2012, we calculated the cumulative numbers by age group and months. Trends of incidence rates (IRs) by gender, nationality, and region were also calculated. We found that there was a greater number of cases (19,130) in the 15-44 years age group than in any other age group. The IRs significantly decreased from 22.9 in 2004 [95% confidence interval (CI)=22.3, 23.5] to 12.5 in 2012 (95% CI=12.1, 13). Males had a significantly greater IR than females. Most cases were reported during spring and summer seasons. The IR of Saudi citizens was significantly greater than that of non-Saudis, but this difference reduced over time. The IRs of Al-Qassim, Aseer, and Hail were in the highest 25th percentile. Young, male Saudi citizens living in highly endemic areas were at greatest risk of acquiring brucellosis. We recommend vaccinating susceptible animals against brucellosis and increasing the public's awareness of preventive measures.

Brucellosis in renal transplant recipients: a comparative review of 5 cases

“…Although brucellosis has been a notifiable disease in KSA for a very long time, multiple precautionary steps resulted in a decreasing trend. The reported incidence rate in 2012 was still 12.5/100 000 (95% CI 12.1 to 13) 3. The patient in this case is a Muslim male and a citizen of KSA; the attributes that reportedly increase the risk of contracting brucellosis significantly.…”

“…However, it remains a serious public health problem in low-income and middle-income countries 2. Awareness about this disease is of particular importance as it frequently poses significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenges 3. It is notable that brucellosis following renal transplantation has rarely been documented.…”

A comparison of three data mining time series models in prediction of monthly brucellosis surveillance data

“…Because of the wide spectrum of brucellosis symptoms in human, that led to diagnosis difficulties, prevalence of infected population is underestimated in the world (Agasthya, Isloor, & Krishnamsetty, ). It is reported by the WHO that the annual number of new cases of brucellosis in the world is more than 500,000 and the highest incidence rates belong to the developing countries (Aloufi, Memish, Assiri, & McNabb, ; Pappas, Papadimitriou, Akritidis, Christou, & Tsianos, ).…”

“…Time series forecasting models allow for early prediction of epidemics (Yang et al, 2015). There are several time series model methods that can be used to forecast the incidence of infectious diseases and have been widely utilized in this context (Aloufi et al, 2016;Kane et al, 2014;Kesorn et al, 2015;Wu et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2016Zhang et al, , 2014. Recently, machine learning-based time series models have been effectively used for modelling incidence of infectious disease and forecasting problems in public health studies including support vector machines (SVMs) (Kesorn et al, 2015;Kisi, Parmar, Soni, & Demir, 2017;Zhang et al, 2014), random forest (RF) (Kane et al, 2014;Wu et al, 2017) and multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARSs) (Kisi et al, 2017).…”

Occupational Neurobrucellosis Mimicking a Brain Tumor: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

“…It is a multisystem disease that may present with a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations including undulant fever and musculoskeletal symptoms and signs [1]. Brucella was first identified from autopsy material of a patient who died on the island of Malta in 1887 by David Bruce.…”