ANNAPURNA S. AGASTHYA, SRIKRISHNA ISLOOR AND K. PRABHUDAS
Abstract
Brucellosis is not an uncommon disease among patients presenting with Pyrexia of Unknown Origin (PUO) in India. The present study was done at Project Directorate on Animal Disease Monitoring and Surveillance, Bangalore (India) to interpret the sero-prevalence of brucellosis among Pyrexia of Unknown Origin cases in different parts of Karnataka State (India). Serum samples collected from 1500 patients with a history of chronic fever were subjected to serological tests like Rose Bengal Plate Agglutination Test (RBPT), Standard Tube Agglutination Test (STAT) and an indigenously standardized indirect Enzyme Linked Imrnunosorbent Assay (i ELISA) by using smooth lipopolysaccharide antigen of Brucella abortus 99. Out of 1500 pUO cases, 204 samples were tested positive for brucellosis. Disease prevalence was 12% in males while 1.6% was in females. The overall prevalence recorded was 13.6%. The disease prevalence was 9.27% in South Karnataka and 4.33% in North Karnataka respectively. The present study showed that brucellosis could be considered an important cause of PUO in India. Indirect ELISA was found to be more sensitive than the conventional RBPT and STAT. The detection of antibodies against Brucella by the indirect ELISA would be of help in detection and treatment of patients in time.