The Prevalence of Brucellosis and Associated Risk Factors in Sanliurfa City Center

Objective: The aim of the study was to detect the prevalence and the associated risk factors for brucellosis in Sanliurfa city center. Methods: The study was performed between January 2010 and April 2010 in 1050 subjects above 18 years of age living in Sanliurfa city center, by using the set sampling method for calculation. The survey form inquiring about sociodemographic characteristics and epidemiologic characteristics and the complaints specific for brucellosis was applied during a face to face interview to each participant. The seroprevalence was determined by rose Bengal (RB) and Wright standard tube agglutination (STA) tests. Results: A total of 1050 subjects were enrolled with the mean age 35.39 +/- 13.46 (age range: 18-90) years, and 702 (%66.9) of them were female. The RB test was positive in 39 (%3.7) subjects while the STA test was positive in 9 (%0.9) of the participants. There was no statistically significant difference in seropositivity status with respect to the age groups (p>0.05). While the rate of seropositivity was 1.0% in females and 0.6% in males, the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05). No statistically significant difference in brucellosis seropositivity was found between the groups with respect to their social security, education or occupation (p>0.05). Conclusions: Few studies have been conducted on the brucellosis seropositivity in our region. It is observed that the disease reports do not cover all the cases when the prevalence studies and the data from the Ministry of Health are compared. Multicenter prevalence studies are required to obtain the actual country data until the reporting system yields better results.