Abstract:


Introduction and Objectives: Brucellosis is a zoonotic bacterial diseases of public health importance especially in pastoralist communities and animal product consumers in many resource limited countries including Tanzania. It is common in Tanzania and its prevalence has been fairly documented in animal populations. Fever being one of the common symptoms of human Brucellosis, it is not routinely considered in cases of fever in many resource limited countries including Tanzania. This study has investigated the prevalence of Brucella spp. Antibodies among adult patients with fever in Mwanza city.

Methods: This cross sectional hospital based study which involved 392 participants was conducted from May to July 2018 in different health facilities in Mwanza city, Tanzania. Sociodemographic and other relevant information were collected by using pre tested data collection tool. Detection of Brucella abortus and Brucella melitensis antibodies was done using agglutination test (Euro cell A/MR Euromaidan equip LTD.UK). Data was analyzed by using STATA version 13.0 software according to the objectives of the study.

Results: The median age of the study participants was 35.1 (IQR: 24-43) years and median body temperature was 37.8 (IQR: 37.6-37.9)0C. THE OVERALL SEROPREVALENCE OF Brucella spp was found to be 276 (70.4%, 95% CI: 65-70). Seroprevalence of Brucella abortus was 274 (69.9%. 95% CI: 65-70) while that of Brucella melitensis was 29 (7.4% 95% CI: 4-9). By multivariable logistic regression analysis only washing hands (OR: 0.43, 95% CI: 0.27-0.70, p=0.001) was found to protect individual from having Brucella spp antibodies.

Conclusion and recommendation: Seroprevalence of Brucella spp antibodies among febrile patients in Mwanza city is alarmingly high and washing hands was found to protect individuals from being seropositive. With decrease trend in malaria fever, other cause of fever like Brucella spp should be considered in the routine diagnosis of fever.