BRUCELLOSIS IN PREGNANCY IN BISHA, SAUDI-ARABIA

Objective: To screen for brucellosis among pregnant women; to evaluate the prevalence of brucellosis in pregnancy as well as its impact on t he course of pregnancy and its outcome. Design: A prospective study of brucellosis in pregnancy. Setting: Prince Abdullah Hospital in Bisha region, Asir province. Subjects: The study population compromised 1800 pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic from January 1992 to De cember 1992. Intervention: All the sera collected from pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic and from those admitted because of pyre xial illness were tested for brucella antibodies by the tube agglutina tion technique. Main outcome measures: Age, nationality, parity, gesta tional age at the time of diagnosis, pregnancy outcome and risk factor s, blood culture, placental, histological and microbiological examinat ion whenever feasible. Results: Positive results were found in 52 preg nant women. The seropositivity rate was 2.89%; 26 patients had a signi ficant titre of a 1:160, i.e. 1.4% of the total 18000 pregnant women ( 50% of the seropositive patients). Ten of these were symptomatic givin g a prevalence rate of 0.6%, i.e. 6/1000 (19.2% of the seropositive pa tients). One of the symptomatic patients had brucellosis complications and her baby developed brucellosis 2 days after delivery. Conclusions and Recommendations: We conclude that a screening programme is recomm ended in endemic areas and the possibility of brucellosis be kept in t he differential diagnosis of fever in pregnancy in these regions.