Brucellosis is not a major cause of febrile illness in patients at public health care facilities in Binh Thuan Province, Vietnam.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To determine the presence of brucellosis among patients with acute febrile illness at health care facilities in Binh Thuan province, Vietnam. METHOD: A retrospective seroepidemiological study on serum samples collected at 13 not adjacent health care facilities using the Rose Bengal test as a rapid screening test and the Brucella IgM/IgG flow assay as a simple confirmatory test. RESULT: The seroprevalence in the Rose Bengal test among 406 patients presented with acute undifferentiated fever was 14.8%. Seven of the 64 Rose Bengal test positive samples reacted weakly (1+) positive in the Brucella IgM/IgG flow assay. No seroconversion was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Brucellosis is not a major cause of morbidity in Binh Thuan province.