Epidemiological Features and Clinical Presentations of Brucellosis: A Retrospective Investigation of 160 Patients in Xinjiang Province of China

Brucellosis remains prevalent in developing countries and results in substantial economic losses and human morbidity. The number of brucellosis cases increased in southeast Xinjiang provinces of China in recent years; however, the clinical epidemiological features of brucellosis in here are unclear. In this study, 160 patients with brucellosis in Bazhou People's Hospital between January 2014 and June 2015 were studied. The diagnosis was determined by clinical findings, and positive agglutination titer etc. Epidemiological investigation showed that Uighur ethnicity comprised 51.3% of all cases, and Han (37.5%), Mongolian (6.9%), Hui (3.1%), and Miao (1.3%). We divided all cases into four age groups: Junior (5.0%), adult 31.3%, middle-age 52.5% and senior 11.3%. Evidently, middle-age group was the majority. In additions, our investigation into the disease seasonal distribution showed the prevalence of brucellosis took place in summer months. According to the duration of symptoms, the investigated cases were grouped into acute (127 cases), sub-acute (27 cases), and chronic (6 cases) brucellosis. The most common symptom was fever (86.3%), followed by arthralgia (54.4%), headache (41.9%), sweating (27.5%) and cough (23.1%) etc. Taken together, the frequency of brucellosis appears to differ, depending on ethnicity, gender, season, age group, as well as involvement of professional occupation.