Seroprevalence of brucella infection among pregnant women in Sana’a city, Yemen

Brucellosis, commonly known as “undulant fever”, “Mediterranean fever” or “Malta fever” is a leading cause of zoonosis worldwide caused by the bacterial genus brucella.1 Brucella is an aerobic, gram-negative, non-fermenting, facultative intracellular, non-motile, non-spore-forming, cocci, cocobacilli or short rods based on DNA homology and represent a single species.2,3 It is transmitted to humans by direct or indirect contact with infected animals or their products.1–5 The entry of the organism is the conjunctiva, respiratory mucosa and damaged skin.6 Generally the transmission from person to person is uncommon, however the human sources of infection may occur in the following ways: vertical transmission with placental circulation, breast feeding, sexual contact, blood transfusion and bone marrow transplantation.7