Investigating the Epidemiologic, Laboratory, and Clinical Features of Brucellosis Patients Hospitalized in the North of Iran During 2009 - 2014

[Background]Brucellosis is a zoonosis with diverse clinical manifestations. This study investigated the epidemiological, laboratory, and clinical features of brucellosis.[Methods]In a cross-sectional survey, we evaluated brucellosis patients who referred to Razi hospital, a referral center for infectious diseases in Mazandaran province (north of Iran), from 21 March 2009 to 20 March 2014. Factors such as age, sex, clinical signs, and laboratory findings were extracted from their medical records.[Results]219 patients with a mean age of 41.6 ± 16.9 years were enrolled including 86 women (39.27%) and 133 men (60.73%). 191 participants (87.2%) had used local dairy products. 174 (79.4%) were suffering from non-focal brucellosis and 45 patients (20.6%) from focal brucellosis. The rates of referral per season were 23.7, 33.8, 23.3, and 19.2 percent in the spring, summer, autumn, and winter, respectively (P = 0.006). In terms of job, 76 patients (34.7%) were in business/market-related jobs, 64 (29.2%) were homemakers, and 49 (22.4%) were in dairy jobs. The relationship between jobs and disease was significant (P = 0.003). The most common chief complaint of patients was fever and chills (31.1%).[Conclusions]Based on the findings, factors such as fever, chills, back pain, myalgia, anemia, and abnormal ESR were associated with brucellosis.