Brucellosis in humans (undulant fever, Gibraltar fever) is a zoonotic infectious sickness that primarily affects the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, nervous, and also reproductive system. Micro-organisms that cause this illness were firstly identified in 1886 by Englishman Bruce. From his name, the disease was called “brucellosis.” With inadequate brucellosis treatment, the sickness becomes chronic. Sometimes with significant lesions of the musculoskeletal system, the patient can be incapacitated. Forecast for life under brucellosis is mostly favorable. In pregnant female individuals, this sickness provokes abortion, stillbirth and preterm delivery.
Ways of brucellosis transmission
There are several ways of brucellosis carrying including
- Contact-household (through lesions on the skin and mucous membranes);
- Fecal-oral (through contaminated food, such as milk, cheese and meat);
- Aerogenic method.
The sources of infection are brucellosis in cattle, goats, sheep and pigs. This sickness is most common in livestock regions, particularly in the Central Asian countries. The infection enters the body through abrasions in the skin, mucous membranes of the respiratory ways and digestive system without causing changes in the entrance gate. Further, the microorganisms are carried to the organs, forming granuloma there. The illness has a long clinical course and a tendency to the chronic process.
Brucellosis symptoms
The main symptoms of brucellosis are
- Weight loss and appetite lowering, headache, irritability, insomnia;
- Pains in the muscles, skeleton and the waist;
- Redness of the face and neck, pale skin of the limbs and body;
- Enlarged liver and spleen;
- Heart disease such as myocarditis, endocarditis, pericarditis;
- From the side of the musculoskeletal system: myositis, arthritis, bursitis, and osteomyelitis;
- On the part of the reproductive system: orchitis, epididymitis, salpingitis, endometritis, amenorrhea, infertility;
- Disturbances of the nervous system: meningitis, encephalitis, myelitis, nephritis, radiculitis;
- Hepatitis, vomiting, diarrhea;
- Keratitis, uveitis, corneal ulceration;
- Bronchitis, pneumonia;
- Some others.
Brucellosis signs
The illness has no specific symptoms at whole. However, the patients bring such basic complaints as
- Severe pain in the joints of the legs with intermittent nature;
- Extreme weakness;
- Increased sweating, sometimes at night;
- The temperature increases for a long period of time, or the ups and downs alternate;
- Peripheral lymph nodes slightly increase in size, there is an insignificant pain on palpation them;
- Painful tight knots (fibrositis, cellulitis) appear in the muscles and tendons.
Brucellosis diagnosis
Diagnosis of this infectious sickness is generally based on history, clinical presentation and other laboratory tests. Perform bacteriological research by seeding of lymph nodes, bone marrow and blood. It is widely used the serological diagnostics, aimed at the identification of specific antibodies in the blood of patients. Burne test is applied very often. This brucellosis test is an intradermal allergy trial to assess sensitizing of organism to infection.
Brucellosis treatment
After 
a doctor makes a diagnosis based on the test results, it can assign the complex medical cure of this illness, which may generally include the following medicaments such as
- Antibacterial treatment is the combinations of different antibiotics such as (Zithromax, Bactrim, Amoxicillin,Vancomycin, Amikacin, Noroxin, Cipro, Gentamicin, Vibramycin, Griseofulvin, Tetracycline, Augmentin and various others);
- Detoxification therapy may be mainly conducted by different immune modulators including (Motilium, Dexamethasone, Florinef, Arava, Prograf, CellCept, Adefovir, Azathioprine,and many others);
- Nonsteroidal and steroidal anti-inflammatory preparations (Diprolene, Lotemax, Colcrys, Pentasa, Aristocort, Dexone, Ilosone, Colcrys, Azulfidine,and several others) are mostly applied also in some cases;
- When the pain appears then pain-killers such as (Celebrex, Panadol Extra,Diclofenac, Motrin, Indometacin, Mobic and so on) may be probably applied by recommendation of your physician.
The vaccine against brucellosis is low effectively. Physical therapy and health resort treatment are mostly used usually in the chronic form of brucellosis. Since brucellosis has tendency to become chronic, monitoring of patients is making during two years after recovery. There are humans changes in the genitals often lead to infertility in female individuals and reduced sexual function in men with chronic forms of brucellosis. After a while the infection gradually goes into remission, but leaves behind irreversible changes in the musculoskeletal system. For this reason, patients with chronic brucellosis (diagnosis of the sickness must be carried out only by experienced physicians) are generally required hospitalization and adequate treatment, which reduces the risk of disability.
Prevention measures
The prevention of infection is chiefly aimed at reducing the morbidity of domestic animals and the brucellosis cattle and right way cooking of meat and other food. For this purpose, specialists carry out the sanitary and veterinary measures, in which the causative agent of brucellosis dies almost always. Specific prevention includes in using of brucellosis vaccines. They regularly do not only to animals, but also livestock workers and other professions involved in the processing of meat or processing of skins and furs.