Epidemiology and Risk Factors of Childhood Brucellosis in West of Iran

Abstract

<strong><em>Background</em></strong> <br />In Iran, Brucellosis mainly is transmitted from animals to humans of non-occupational ways, thus its prevalence in children is equal to adults or higher than them, thus in view of etiology and public health studying the epidemiological pattern of Brucellosis in children is important. Present study aimed to investigate the epidemiologic characteristics of brucellosis in children under 15 years old in Hamadan province. <br /><strong><em>Materials and Methods</em></strong> <br />This cross – sectional study was carried out on children under 15 years old in Hamadan province during 2012-2014. 460 patients in this period were investigated. Data were analyzed using by descriptive statistics and incidence rate as an analytic statistics with Stata software version 12. P-value≤0.05 considered as statistically significant. <br /><strong><em>Results</em></strong> <br />Overall 460 Brucellosis cases were detected in children during the studied period, among them N (%) of boys and reside in rural area were 317 (68.9) and 404 (87.8) respectively. Incidence rate of brucellosis was 41.4 per 100,000 populations. 103 cases (22.4%) had a history of consumption of raw or unpasteurized milk products and 170 (37%) had direct contact with domestic animals. <br /><strong><em>Conclusion</em></strong> <br />Age and gender pattern of transmission of brucellosis in children in Hamadan province was similar to the pattern of endemic countries and prevalence in children was comparable with adults.