Brucellosis in the middle East: a persistent medical, socioeconomic and political issue.

ABSTRACT

Human brucellosis remains endemic in the majority of Middle Eastern countries, accounting for tens of thousands of new annual cases, despite partly successful efforts at disease control. In the Middle East, more pronouncedly than elsewhere, brucellosis exhibits significant socioeconomic and political correlations, including population literacy and distribution, and development of health networks. Currently, Middle Eastern countries, having a vast pool of human cases, generate important information regarding the disease's clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and treatment. Given the socioeconomic framework of brucellosis endemicity, specific approaches allowing for rapid, cost-effective diagnosis, and efficient cost-effective therapy should be pursued. Overall, attempts at controlling disease without altering the socioeconomic and political correlations may prove futile, unfortunately projecting similar fates for attempts related to more important communicable diseases.