The burden of brucellosis in Sanaag region

Brucellosis is a major public health concern worldwide. It is a zoonotic infection-meaning it primarily affects animals. It is caused by the bacteria called brucella. It is transmitted to humans by undercooked meat ingestion, direct contact with an infected animal or by inhalation.

I was annoyed by a review on brucellosis I read on the web that cited that brucellosis is of no public health importance in Somalia. I wonder if any properly formulated research was done on brucellosis in Somalia. Has that person ever come to Sanaag region? As a practitioner who treats the Somali pastoralists on a daily basis, brucellosis is a major public health problem among the Somali people especially in this region where people majorly keep sheep.

 The fact that our people are nomadic pastoralists and the disease is transmitted from the animals to the humans can even be used to object that statement.

Yes there are no microbiological isolation of the bacteria to make a diagnosis but in an extremely resource poor setting like Somalia we can depend on serological tests, though not reliable, and clinical presentation as well as response to the treatment.

There is no national program for brucella vaccination of our livestock, no public health education for the people on ways to stop the spread of the disease from their animals to them such pasteurization of milk, cooking the meat well  and drinking water from a separate well . When you combine all these one may come to the conclusion that brucella must be a major public health problem in this country. It was so surprising to me to find that these nomads drink from the same well with the animals. They believe that drinking the water with the camels and sheep has some healing advantage and is good for their health.

Whenever I am not busy at the hospital I visit the nearby well and try to educate them on the risk of brucellosis and how they can stop its spread to them. Most of them are too stubborn to convince!

The best way to control such a disease is to eliminate it from our animals. And on that note I think there is much work for our veterinary professionals.

Personaly I believe that Brucella is to Somalis, as Malaria is to Ugandans!

Dr. Mohamed Bobe, HIngalool,
#NomadicHealthCAre#252HealthCare#mypersonalencounter.