Epidemiology of Brucellosis in Gjirokastra District, Albania

Brucellosis is recognized as a clinical and health problem in underdeveloped countries. The aim of this study is to present the epidemiological features and clinical aspects of brucellosis, in the district of Gjirokastra during the period 2002-2011. Cases were defined by clinical symptoms and were tested by a standard agglutination test. The socio-demographic information, location, occupational risk, contact with the animals is recorded by health personnel. Overall 2678 patients were included in the study. The mean age of patients was 39.721.3 years with a range 2 83 years, 56.4 % of them were males.69 % of patients live in rural area. Patients of age group 25-60 years of age account for 57.3 % of the total cases. Most affected were housewives (34.4 %) cases, farmers with 608 (22.7 %) cases, followed by students with 316 (11.8 %) cases and children with 254 (9.5 %) cases. The majority of brucellosis cases in this study were attributed to direct contact with animals or their products.