Increasing Threat of Brucellosis to Low-Risk Persons in Urban Settings, China - Volume 20, Number 1—January 2014 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

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Increasing Threat of Brucellosis to Low-Risk Persons in Urban Settings, China - Volume 20, Number 1—January 2014 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

Volume 20, Number 1—January 2014

Dispatch

Increasing Threat of Brucellosis to Low-Risk Persons in Urban Settings, China

Article Contents

• Case Reports
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Figure 1
• Figure 2
• Table 1
• Table 2
• Technical Appendix - 24 KB 
• Suggested Citation

Shouyi Chen1, Hao Zhang1, Xiaoning Liu1, Wenjing Wang1, Shuiping Hou, Tingting Li, Shuoxian Zhao, Zhicong Yang, and Chengyao Li 

Author affiliations: Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou, China (S. Chen, H. Zhang, X. Liu, S. Hou, Z. Yang);Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China (W. Wang, T. Li, S. Zhao, C. Li)

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract

Cases of brucellosis were diagnosed in 3-month-old twins and their mother. An epidemiologic survey suggested that raw sheep or goat meat might be the source ofBrucella melitensis infection. This finding implies that the increasing threat of brucellosis might affect low-risk persons in urban settings in China.

Brucellosis, a zoonotic disease, causes severe pain and impairment in humans. In 2012, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) reported 39,515 new cases of human brucellosis, and this number is increasing by 10% each year. Generally, brucellosis is associated with persons who are occupationally in contact with Brucella spp.–infected animals or products (1,2). However, in this report, we present a cluster of cases of brucellosis in a family living in Guangzhou, China. These data illustrate a trend of human brucellosis threatening theoretically low-risk persons in an urban setting and suggest a need for eradicating or controlling Brucella spp.–infected animals and products in China.

Case Reports

Congenital brucellosis was diagnosed in patients 1 and 2, who were 3-month-old twins (Technical Appendix  [PDF - 24 KB - 1 page] Table). They were prematurely delivered by cesarean section on July 6, 2012, at the Provincial Maternity and Child Care Center (Guangzhou, China). The boy (patient 1, Apgar score 9–10/1–10 min) had a birthweight of 2.3 kg, and the girl (patient 2, Apgar score 9–10/1–10 min) had a birthweight of 1.8 kg. They received standard care for preterm neonates at the hospital. They were discharged once their weight reached 2.5 kg; this happened for patient 1 at 3 weeks of age and for patient 2 at 4 weeks of age (July 29 and August 3, 2012, respectively).

Acknowledgments

We thank the physicians who provided clinical information about cases, Guangzhou Stem Cell Bank for providing the reserved stem cells of the twins’ cord blood, Yuming Zhang (for reviewing patients’ cases, and Jean-Pierre Allain for his helpful revisions and comments.

This work was supported in part by grants from the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program No. 2010CB530204) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31100657). The sponsors of the study had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of this report.

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Figures

• Figure 1. [[caption]]
• Figure 2. [[caption]]

Tables

• Table 1. Clinical and laboratory data on twin patients on admission to the infectious disease hospital
• Table 2. Bacteriological and biochemical features of Brucella strains

Technical Appendix

• Technical Appendix. [  [caption]]  24 KB

Suggested citation for this article: Chen S, Zhang H, Liu X, Wang W, Hou S, Li T, Zhao S, Yang Z, Li C. Increasing threat of brucellosis to low-risk persons in urban settings, China. Emerg Infect Dis [Internet]. 2014 Jan [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2001.130324

DOI: 10.3201/eid2001.130324

1These authors contributed equally to this article.