A Study on Prevalence of Brucellosis among Children and Adolescents in Missan Province-Iraq

In Iraq, brucellosis is considered an endemic disease in human and animals despite the measures applied to control the disease. The study was performed to obtain the information about the disease from aspect the age, the region, the time, and the commonest clinical symptoms. The disease was diagnosed according to the clinical signs and symptoms and using Rose Bengal test in Al-Sadr Hospital. The high percent of the disease were recorded in male children (53.8 %), also the study recorded (43.1 %) of the infected children were in ages between 14 to 17 years, while the low percentage was recorded in the ages between 5 to 7 years in percentage (6.1 %). (39.4 %) of infected children their family have a tends to ranching in their houses, and (28.8 %) of children were consumed unpasteurized milk, while (15.5 %) of cases were in direct touch with infected and contaminated animals and their discharges during abortions. The disease was increased in months of spring and summer where the high percentage was recorded in April (26.1 %), while low percentage was found in January (5 %). Amara district was the most common infected region with brucellosis in children with percentage (35.5 %) followed by Kumait and Maymona districts in percent (23.3 %, 14.4 %) respectively. High fever, copious sweating, head ache and loss appetite were the most common symptoms that accompanied to Malta fever in children. Conclusion of this study there were high percentage of brucellosis in children especially in city center and rural regions in Missan governorate because high intensity of population and some of them have a tendency to rear the animals inside the houses, which demanded from specific authorities to take care for control on the disease especially in the animals that consider the main source for the disease.