Abstract
BackgroundBrucellosis is a common zoonosis that can cause a severe febrile illness in humans. It constitutes a persistent health problem in many developing countries around the world. It is one of the most frequently reported diseases in Saudi Arabia and incidence is particularly high in the Central region, and around the city of Riyadh. The aim of this study was to evaluate a two-stage PCR assay for detection of human brucellosis particularly in endemic areas.MethodsA total of 101 serum samples were collected from patients with acute febrile illness (AFI) of unknown cause from two different locations in the Western region of Saudi Arabia. The first location (Northern) is characterized by a nomadic rural population while the second (Central) is a modern urban city. All samples were subjected to DNA extraction and Brucella genus-specific PCR amplification using B4/B5 primers of the bcsp31 gene. Positive B4/B5 samples were subjected to multiplex species-specific Brucella PCR amplification.ResultsIn the Northern location, 81.9% of the AFI samples were confirmed Brucella positive, while all the samples collected from the Central region proved to be Brucella negative. Samples positive for Brucella were subjected to multiplex species-specific Brucella amplification. B. abortus was detected in 10% and B. melitensis in 8% of the samples, while the majority (82%) of samples showed both B. abortus and B. melitensis. As expected, B. suis was not detected in any of the samples.ConclusionsThis study concluded that a two-stage PCR assay could be useful as a rapid diagnostic tool to allow the consideration of brucellosis as a possible cause of AFI, particularly in non-urban locations. It also recommends the collection of epidemiological data for such patients to obtain further information that may help in rapid diagnosis.
Highlights
Brucellosis is a common zoonosis that can cause a severe febrile illness in humans
A total of 101 acute febrile illness (AFI) patients were enrolled in this study in the Western region of Saudi Arabia; 61 and 40 from the Northern and Central locations, respectively
All samples were subjected to Brucella genus amplification using B4/B5 primers that amplify a conserved region in all Brucella species to detect the presence of Brucella DNA as one of the possible causes of the AFI
Summary
Brucellosis is a common zoonosis that can cause a severe febrile illness in humans It constitutes a persistent health problem in many developing countries around the world. It is one of the most frequently reported diseases in Saudi Arabia and incidence is high in the Central region, and around the city of Riyadh. The etiology and incidence of acute febrile illness (AFI) represents a major public health problem because clinical diagnosis is usually unreliable, and diagnostic tests are often not available in disease endemic areas [1]. Human brucellosis is one of the most frequently reported diseases in Saudi Arabia, in the Central region and around the city of Riyadh [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. In Saudi Arabia, brucellosis has been recognized as a major health problem, and measures to control the disease were implemented as early as 1983 [13]
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