Incidence of human brucellosis in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania in the periods 2007-2008 and 2012-2014.

Abstract

Background

Brucellosis causes substantial morbidity among humans and their livestock. There are few robust estimates of the incidence of brucellosis in sub-Saharan Africa. Using cases identified through sentinel hospital surveillance and health care utilization data, we estimated the incidence of brucellosis in Moshi Urban and Moshi Rural Districts, Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania, for the periods 2007-2008 and 2012-2014.

Methods

Cases were identified among febrile patients at two sentinel hospitals and were defined as having either a 4-fold increase in Brucella microscopic agglutination test titres between acute and convalescent serum or a blood culture positive for Brucella spp. Findings from a health care utilization survey were used to estimate multipliers to account for cases not seen at sentinel hospitals.

Results

Of 585 patients enrolled in the period 2007-2008, 13 (2.2%) had brucellosis. Among 1095 patients enrolled in the period 2012-2014, 32 (2.9%) had brucellosis. We estimated an incidence (range based on sensitivity analysis) of brucellosis of 35 (range 32-93) cases per 100 000 persons annually in the period 2007-2008 and 33 (range 30-89) cases per 100 000 persons annually in the period 2012-2014.

Conclusions

We found a moderate incidence of brucellosis in northern Tanzania, suggesting that the disease is endemic and an important human health problem in this area.

Department

Description

Provenance

Citation

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.1093/trstmh/try033

Publication Info

Carugati, Manuela, Holly M Biggs, Michael J Maze, Robyn A Stoddard, Shama Cash-Goldwasser, Julian T Hertz, Jo EB Halliday, Wilbrod Saganda, et al. (2018). Incidence of human brucellosis in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania in the periods 2007-2008 and 2012-2014. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 112(3). pp. 136–143. 10.1093/trstmh/try033 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/29850.

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Scholars@Duke

Carugati

Manuela Carugati

Associate Professor of Medicine
Hertz

Julian T Hertz

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine

Julian Hertz, MD, MSc, is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine & Global Health. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and attended medical school at Duke University, where he received the Dean's Merit Scholarship and the Thomas Jefferson Award for leadership. He completed his residency training in emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and his fellowship in Global Health at Duke.

Dr. Hertz's primary interests include global health, implementation science, and undergraduate and graduate medical education. Dr. Hertz's research focuses on using implementation science methods to improve cardiovascular care both locally and globally. His current projects involve developing interventions to improve acute myocardial infarction care in Tanzania, to improve management of hypertension among Tanzanians with HIV, and to improve post-hospital care among patients with multimorbidity in East Africa.

Dr. Hertz has received numerous awards for clinical, educational, and research excellence, including the Duke Emergency Medicine Faculty Teacher of the Year Award, the Duke Emergency Medicine Faculty Clinician of the Year Award, and the Duke Emergency Medicine Faculty Researcher of the Year Award. He has also received the Golden Apple Teaching Award from the Duke medical student body, the Duke Master Clinician/Teacher Award, and the Global Academic Achievement Award from the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine.

Rubach

Matthew P. Rubach

Associate Professor of Medicine
Crump

John Andrew Crump

Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicine

I am an Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Pathology, and Global Health. My work with Duke University is primarily based in northern Tanzania where I am former Site Leader and current Principal Investigator on projects linked to Duke University’s collaborative research program at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre. I oversee the design and implementation of research studies on infectious diseases, particularly febrile illness, invasive bacterial disease, zoonotic infections, and infectious diseases diagnostics. In addition, I am Professor of Medicine, Pathology, and Global Health at the University of Otago and a medical epidemiologist with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). My CDC work focuses on non-malaria febrile illness.


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