Abstract
The incidence of brucellosis in Armenia in 2010 was twice as high as in other countries of the Caucasian region and has almost doubled over the last three decades. This study aimed to investigate factors associated with acute or chronic forms of presentation of human brucellosis. Retrospective study using data from medical records of 455 patients hospitalized for the first time at the Nork Republican Infectious Disease Referral Hospital in Yerevan, Armenia between the years 2006 and 2016. We undertook descriptive analysis of cases, compared acute and chronic cases, and identified factors associated with acute and chronic cases using regression. The majority of brucellosis cases had acute case presentation (73.0%), were males (70.3%), between the ages of 20-60 years (66.2%) and unemployed (89.9%). About two-thirds of cases reported a history of consumption of raw unpasteurized milk. The multivariate analysis revealed that factors associated with the form of brucellosis were age, symptom duration preadmission, fever, antibody titer, and hospitalization outcomes. This study revealed that brucellosis is unevenly distributed across different age groups, as well as regions of Armenia. Affected individuals did not seek medical attention after the onset of the symptoms for about 2 months. Therefore, the targeted educational campaigns could be of crucial importance to prevent the disease in humans, contribute to its early diagnosis and treatment.
Highlights
The incidence of brucellosis in Armenia in 2010 was twice as high as in other countries of the Caucasian region and has almost doubled over the last three decades
A total number of 458 eligible cases were identified, including three with sub-acute brucellosis, which we excluded based on the small frequency of cases, resulting in a total number of 455 brucellosis cases in the final analysis
Most cases originated from Yerevan (n = 145, 32.0%), followed by marzes of Kotayk (n = 77, 17.0%) and Aragatsotn (n = 62, 13.6%) with the majority of cases being not employed at the moment of admission (n = 409, 89.9%)
Summary
The incidence of brucellosis in Armenia in 2010 was twice as high as in other countries of the Caucasian region and has almost doubled over the last three decades. This study aimed to investigate factors associated with acute or chronic forms of presentation of human brucellosis. Results: The majority of brucellosis cases had acute case presentation (73.0%), were males (70.3%), between the ages of 20-60 years (66.2%) and unemployed (89.9%). The multivariate analysis revealed that factors associated with the form of brucellosis were age, symptom duration preadmission, fever, antibody titer, and hospitalization outcomes. In the majority of cases, brucellosis presents with nonspecific symptoms such as fever, sweating, anorexia, appetite loss and profound muscle weakness. It can involve specific tissue and organs causing osteoarticular, urogenital, neurological and cardiological complications [2,3]. The incidence of brucellosis in central Asian countries is high [6]
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