BRUCELLOSIS - CLINICAL AND SEROLOGICAL STUDY IN A RURAL HEALTH-CARE AREA

We analyze retrospectively 132 cases of brucellosis evaluating the performance of diagnostic procedures, complications and serological and clinical evolution. We compare the 74 patients treated with streptomycin plus tetracycline versus the 41 patients treated with doxycycline plus rifampicin. The more outstanding results we find: a) Great sensibility of the rose begal test; b) Higher relapse rate in the more severe cases (p<0.01); c) Good evolution with scarce relapse rate in both treatment groups; agllutination titers were lower at one year in the goup treated with doxycycline plus rifampicin (p<0.05). Conclusions: Both treatments showed good efficacy, controlled studies would be needed to determine the most adequate one.