Abstract:

Background:Brucellosis is a serious public health issue that causes significant morbidity in both humans and animals. Pregnant women who have the Brucella melitensis infection run the risk of having unfavourable pregnancies, including miscarriage, stillbirth, premature labour, and low birth weight, among many other complications. Despite being widespread in tropical areas, there is little information on how prevalent it is among pregnant women, which means that there is little public awareness of the disease's possible risk factors, which makes control efforts more difficult. This research reveals the level of Brucella melitensis antibodies and its associated factors among pregnant women in Unguja, Zanzibar.

Methods:This was a cross sectional study involving 270pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Unguja Zanzibar between June and July 2023. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Venous blood sample was collected and serum was used for detection of Brucella melitensis antibodies by slide agglutination test as per manufacturer’s instructions(EUROCELL,UK). Data was analysed by STATA version 15.

Result;A total number 270 pregnant women were enrolled in the study. The mean age of study participants was 26.9 years (±5.7), majority of them were married 245/270(90.7%) and most of them were from urban 236/270(87.41%).The seroprevalence of Brucella melitensis antibody was 4.4%.Brucella melitensis infection had a statistically significance associated with history of fever, myalgia and participant involved in animal keeping (OR 12.74[95%CI 2.59-6.76] p-value 0.002 ), (OR 8.34[95%CI 1.39-9.13] p-value 0.020), 0.000(OR 30.16[95%CI 4.97-65.6] p-value 0.000).

Conclusion; Brucella melitensis antibody are prevalent among pregnant women in Unguja Zanzibar (4.4%), this is asign of exposure to Brucella pathogen.The identified main risk factor on pregnant women to this study it showed that those who have animal at home have greater chance to get Blucella melitensis infection. Also it showed that seroprevalence of Brucella melitensis antibody is significantly higher among those who have history of fever than myalgia.