Brucellosis

Brucellosis – General Information

• Cyprus fever
• Continued fever
• Mediterranean fever
• Goat fever
• Gibraltar fever
• Crimean fever
• Mountain fever
• Neapolitan fever
• Rock fever
• Slow fever
• Melitensis septicemia
• Bruce’s septicemia
• Febris melitensis
• Febris undulans
• Melitococcosis
• Brucelliasis
• Milk sickness

It is well known that if a person has been infected with this genus it unlikely for the medical condition to reappear, but in the cases in which this disease is not properly treated, there is a chance to reappear and to last more than a year.

Brucellosis – Symptoms

• Flu-like symptoms
• fever
• Sweats
• Headaches
• Back pains
• Physical weakness
• Joint pains
• Enlarged liver
• Enlarged spleen
• Enlarged lymph nodes
• Relapsing cycles of fever
• Fever
• Weakness
• Osteomyositis localized infection
• Spleen abscess localized infection
• Inflammation of testes localized infection
• Lung infection localized infection
• Profuse sweating
• Chills
• Weight loss
• Generalized aching
• Long lasting or chronic symptoms: recurrent fever, joint pain and fatigue.
• Anemia
• Depression
• Muscular pains
• Orchitis
• Sacroiliitos
• Migratory arthralgia
• Myalgia
• Melitococcemia

In the final stage of this medical condition the signs and symptom are the followings:

• Problems with the reproductive system
• Problems with the liver
• Problems with the heart and the central nervous system
• Spondylitis
• Arthritis

This medical condition may disappear for several weeks and after that returns. Patients may also be infected with this genus for several times because the first time is not known to provide immunity to the organism. 

Brucellosis – Treatment

In order for the doctor to establish diagnose he will follow the next steps:

• Take a sample of blood and put it in blood cultures in tryptose broth in order to identify the Brucella bacteria
• Radiologic alterations in infected vertebrae
• Clean catch urine culture
• CSF culture
• Bone marrow culture
• Serology

If the disease leaves sequelae, these may include the followings:

• Uveitis
• Optic neuritis
• Infective Endocarditis
• Meningitis
• Thrombocytopenia
• Leukopenia
• Encephalitis
• Anemia
• Bone and joint lesions
• Spondylitis
• Arthritis
• Granulomatous Hepatitis

In order to prevent the infection with Brucellosis, people should eat and drink only pasteurized milk and chesses and avoid as much as possible the direct contact with the infected animals and also:

• Avoid raw dairy foods.
• Cook meat thoroughly.
• Wear gloves.
• Take safety precautions.
• Immunize domestic animals.

Also the persons who are involved in butchering should wear rubber gloves, especially when they come in direct contact with the blood of these animals.
There are some antibiotics which are effective against the Brucellosis such as:

• Tetracycline
• Rifampicin
• Aminoglicosides streptomycin, gentamicin
• Doxycycline
• Clotrimoxazole

As the bacterium of the Brucellosis incubates in the cells, the treatment will be needed for several weeks and will contain at least two of the antibiotics written above. Brucellosis as we said before is treated with two of the antibiotics listed above for as long as about six weeks. The World Health Organization recommends the patients to use Doxycycline in combination with streptomycin or Rifampin (another combination may include aminoglycosides streptomycin and gentamicin, which are also effective in treating this medical condition, or just gentamicin mg/kg under the form of intramuscular injection once a day for one week). Only if the disease affects the nervous central system the doctor will prescribe an antibiotic treatment for about three months. Doctors may also recommend the patients bed rest, as the daily activities may worsen the symptoms and to delay the healing. The bad part is that even with a specific treatment, bed rest and best care the symptoms may persist for several months and then go away.

The Brucellosis may alter the results of some test, such as:

• Quantitative immunoglobulins – also called nephelometry
• Serum immunoelectrophoresis