Brucellosis

Brucellosis is an infectious disease caused by a family of bacteria called Brucella.

You can get the disease when you come in contact with infected animals or animal products contaminated with the bacteria. Animals that most commonly get brucellosis include cats, dogs, sheep, cattle, goats, pigs, bison, elk, caribou, moose, and wild hogs, among others.

Person to person spread is rare. People can get brucellosis by:

• Eating undercooked meat such as sheep, cow, goat, or camel.
• Eating undercooked game meat such as bison, elk, caribou, moose, and wild hog.
• Consuming unpasteurized (raw) milk or other dairy products made from contaminated milk.
• Breathing in the bacteria that cause brucellosis.
• Getting body fluids from infected animals in the eyes, nose, or mouth.
• Preparing meat or hides after hunting.
• Getting certain animal vaccines in the eyes, nose or mouth or accidentally injecting yourself when vaccinating animals
• Working in a lab with brucellosis samples.

Brucellosis can cause a range of signs and symptoms in people, and some can occur for a long time before it’s diagnosed. The first symptoms can include:

• Fever
• Sweating
• Malaise
• Loss of appetite
• Headache
• Pain in muscles, joints, and/or back
• Fatigue

Other symptoms may continue or may come and go until you’ve had treatment, including:

• Fevers that keep coming back
• Arthritis
• Swelling of the testicles and scrotum area
• Endocarditis
• Memory loss, confusion, and irritability
• Depression
• Swelling of the liver and/or spleen

If NIAS staff are aware that the patient has a suspected or confirmed case this should be communicated to the Control Room (Emergency or Non-emergency as appropriate) and the staff in the receiving unit when transferring the patient to ensure effective patient care and management.

• Contact Precautions should be used.
• Hand Hygiene should be completed as per the 5 moments in line with usual practice.
• Eye protection should be risk assessed for any concern regarding a splash risk.
• Gloves and Aprons should be worn.
• The patient should be transported via ambulance with no other patients present
• Laundry should be treated as contaminated, placed into an alginate bag and placed into a red laundry bag.

All equipment and the ambulance should have an in-between patient clean, paying particular attention to touch points.

No staff follow up required.