Sero-diagnosis of human brucellosis among TB suspected patients

In order to verify the frequency of human brucellosis among a TB suspected population, a study was conducted on the basis of sero-diagnosis of a total of 229 blood samples from TB suspected patients. Serological tests carried out were slide and semi-quantitative agglutination tests. Of the tested samples, 44 [19.21%] were SAT positive and of these, 28 [12.23%] were positive for the semiquantitative agglutination test. Twelve [42.86%] had a brucella titer of 1:80; 14 [50%] had a brucella titer of 1:160 and 2 [7.14%] had a titer of 1:320. The majority of patients positive for brucellosis, exhibiting sero-agglutination titers ranging between 1:40 and 1:320, were of rural background. However, 35.72% persons positive for brucella antibody with titer of 1:160 were from urban localities. Fever [84.48%], headache/dizziness [71.43%] and weakness/fatigue [46.43%] were the most common presenting symptoms among the brucellosis positive patients. The frequency of brucellosis among these TB suspected patients was found to be higher in women [73.91%], as compared to men [52.38%]