Laboratory-acquired brucellosis: a Spanish national survey
Introduction
Brucellosis is still an important endemic zoonosis in extensive areas of the world1, 2, 3, 4 and one of the most frequent professional diseases of veterinarians and those working in the meat industry.4, 5, 6 The disease is also recognized as an important professionally acquired infection in microbiology laboratories, even in developed countries.7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 However, extensive surveys of the risk of acquiring brucellosis among microbiologists have not been performed previously.
We conducted a nationwide survey in Spain among members of the Spanish Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (SEIMC). Questionnaires were also sent to senior microbiologists and technical supervisors of microbiology laboratories in Spanish public hospitals, in order to determine the incidence of laboratory-acquired brucellosis (LAB).
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Methods
The SEIMC includes the majority of staff working in Spanish clinical microbiology laboratories. It is composed of two sections (Microbiology and Infectious Diseases). At the time of the study (1998–1999), the microbiology section had 1240 registered members.
We carried out a retrospective postal survey of the 1240 clinical microbiology laboratory workers in Spain. Data requested in the survey included the following: name, sex, age and staff grade. The number of samples per day processed for
Results
Out of 1240 surveys sent, 628 replies were received (50.6%). Of these, 388 were from medical staff and 240 were from microbiology technicians. Overall, 75 of those surveyed had suffered from LAB (11.9%). A total of 11.1% of facultative staff and 13.3% of technicians who replied had suffered from LAB. No statistically significant differences were found between the groups. Of the 75 LAB cases, 31 were male and 44 were female. This represented 16.3% and 10.0% of all males and females who replied,
Discussion
A large number of laboratory workers are exposed to different occupational health risks. In microbiology laboratory staff, infection is probably the most frequent laboratory-associated hazard.14 Traditionally, brucellosis has been considered to be the most important laboratory-acquired bacterial infection.15 Although in many countries, the incidence of brucellosis has fallen, the existence of sporadic cases in these countries and its permanence as an endemic disease in others, such as the
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Odorina Tello and Salvador de Mateo Ontañón from Instituto de Salud Carlos III in Madrid, Spain for providing data of the incidence of brucellosis in Spain. The authors thank Dr L. Vigil for useful discussion and suggestions.
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☆This work was presented in part at the 39th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, September 1999, San Francisco, USA.