Diagnosis and Treatment of Brucellosis

Abstract

Not only the treatment but also the diagnosis of undulant fever are far from being satisfactory, although many types of therapy are being tried and critically evaluated. Because of the tremendous scope of the disease, frequent discussions and reappraisals of our ideas about brucellosis will be absolutely essential for some time. Some physicians more or less disregard brucellosis and even scoff at the chronic phase of this new intruder in the realm of human disease. Others are overenthusiastic and attempt to explain many vague and indefinite problems upon the basis of chronic brucellosis without sufficient evidence. Still other physicians have lost their original enthusiasm and have reverted to the first viewpoint, probably because of the great difficulty in coping with the caprices and vagaries of this disease and the marked uncertainties in diagnosis and treatment.

Even though this disease is extremely protean and remarkably bizarre in its manifestations, it is a disease of known causative organism to which the generic term of brucella has been given.

The original infection in man was traced to the drinking of goat's milk on the Island of Malta, and for many years this disease was known as Malta fever. Because of the undulating character of the fever with a tendency for remissions and recurrences, it was later called undulant fever which proved to be a very poor description of the febrile reaction in many instances. Brucellosis is the more specific term derived from the organism causing the disease.

Three strains of the brucella organism. . .