Human brucellosis in South Africa : a review for medical practitioners

Abstract

Brucellosis is recognised as a neglected zoonotic tropical disease of global health and economic importance. Medical practitioner unawareness of the disease is reported to contribute to the overall neglect. In South Africa (SA), human brucellosis is a notifiable medical condition and bovine brucellosis is a controlled animal disease. The overall aim of this review article is to increase medical practitioner capacity to detect, diagnose and treat brucellosis in the SA context. A brief review of the literature on human brucellosis in SA is presented, together with a discussion of current issues related to medical detection, treatment and management of brucellosis, applicable to the SA context.