A Literature Review of Laboratory-Acquired Brucellosis

Brucellosis is a bacterial zoonotic disease which has been associated with laboratory-acquired infections. No recent reviews have addressed the characteristics of laboratory-acquired brucellosis (LAB). English-language literature was reviewed to identify reports of laboratory exposures to Brucella spp. and LAB cases between 1982 and 2007. Evaluation of twenty-eight case reports identified 167 potentially exposed laboratory workers of which 71 had LAB. Nine reports were identified that summarized an additional 186 cases of LAB. Only 18 (11%) exposures were due to laboratory accidents, 147 (88%) exposures were due to aerosolization of organisms during routine identification activities and 2 (1%) exposures were unknown. Brucella melitensis was the causative agent for 80% (135/167) of the exposures. Workers with high risk exposures were 9.3 times more likely to develop LAB than workers with low risk exposures (95% CI, 3.0-38.6; P<0.0001); they were also 0.009 times as likely to develop LAB if they took antimicrobial PEP than those who did not take PEP (95% CI, 0-0.042; P<0.0001). Median incubation period in case and summary reports was eight weeks (range 1-40 weeks). Antimicrobial PEP is effective in preventing LAB. The incubation period may be used to identify appropriate serological and symptom surveillance timeframes for exposed laboratory workers.
REFERENCIA:
Traxler RM, Lehman MW, Bosserman EA, Guerra MA, Smith TL. A Literature Review of Laboratory-Acquired Brucellosis. J Clin Microbiol. 2013 Jul 3. Pay-per-view

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