Article Text
Abstract
Introduction Brucellosis (Malta fever) is a bacterial zoonotic infectious disease. This study reviews the brucellosis trend in Iran during 1991–2008, provides the distribution maps related to the patient and assays the effect of livestock vaccination rate on disease report in humans.
Methods Necessary Information was achieved from concerned authorities. Data analysis was done by SPSS software version 16. Mapping was performed using ArcGIS version 9.3.
Results Brucellosis is reported more in the West and Northwest provinces, where their sheep and goat population density is higher than other parts of the country. The highest incidence of brucellosis was seen in 1991 with a rate 101.63 per one hundred thousand people. On average, each year about 27 500 new cases were reported in the country. Brucellosis incidence over the years showed a decreasing trend (r=−0.79, P<0.001). Pearson correlation analysis showed that in different provinces there was a significant association between the annual incidence of Malta fever and the annual infection rate of sheep and goats (r=0.347, p<0.001), the annual incidence of Malta fever and the annual infection rate of cattle(r=0.327, p<0.001) and the annual incidence of Malta fever and the percentage of vaccinated cows (r=0.098, p=0.031).
Conclusion As the prevalence of brucellosis depends very closely with the prevalence of brucellosis in animals, the control of the disease in human population is not possible unless it is controlled in livestock; so the cooperation between different organizations (Veterinary, public health …) is needed.