Seroprevalence of Brucella Agglutinins in Patients with Pyrexia of Unknown Origin Attending a Tertiary Care Rural Hospital

BACKGROUND Human brucellosis is a zoonosis with worldwide distribution, with great importance in developing countries like India. The diagnosis of brucellosis is frequently difficult to establish as it mimics many other infectious and non-infectious diseases. The use of feasible diagnostic tests seems to be great importance for diagnosing human brucellosis. The present study was carried out to study the seroprevalence of human brucellosis by estimating IgG and IgM by ELISA in central India. METHODS A total of 124 serum samples were collected over a period of one year, and processed in a tertiary care teaching hospital in central India. Serum samples of patients admitted to the hospital with the diagnosis of pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO) were investigated for detectable IgG and IgM antibodies by ELISA. The observance values thus obtained were converted to Nova Tec Unit (NTU) by using the formula according to the manufacturer's instructions. RESULTS Of the total of 124 serum samples, ELISA detected presence of IgG antibodies in 12 (9.67%) indicating chronic infection and IgM antibodies in 28 (22.58%) suggesting acute and recent infection. CONCLUSIONS ELISA has the ability to measure two specific immunoglobulins for effective diagnosis and is also a rapid method for detecting seroprevalence of human brucellosis in the community.