Man contracted brucellosis after handling buffalo on trip to India
By Gordon Deegan
A 32-year-old married restaurant worker here contracted acute brucellosis after he handled buffaloes at a farm and drank unpasteurised goat milk during a month-long stay in India.
That is according to medics in a paper entitled 'Mysteries on the Menu: A Traveller's Health Misadventure' in the new edition of the Irish Medical Journal (IMJ).
According to the medics at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin, brucellosis is a zoonotic infection, acquired by consuming unpasteurised dairy or handling animals infected with bacteria.
Although eradicated from Irish cattle in 2009, brucellosis occurs in large parts of the world in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Central Asia, China, the Indian subcontinent, Sub-Saharan Africa, Mexico, and Central and South America.
Buffalo in India
The restaurant worker was on a visit to Punjab, India and a study showed one-third of dairy farms there had at least one infected animal, while 10% of humans with direct livestock contact tested positive there.
According to the medics, brucellosis is rare in Ireland amongst humans, with provisional Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) data indicating five cases were reported in 2023, and one in both 2022 and 2024.
In the paper, the medics state that in April 2023, the man presented to the hospital with over four months of fevers, myalgia, headaches, and 5kg weight loss.
The symptoms began in November 2022 after his one-month trip to Punjab, India.
The man's general practitioner (GP) treated him with 10 days of empiric oral medication in November 2022, with some improvement, but symptoms recurred weeks later.
The medics state that treatment with an antibiotic used to treat various bacterial infections in January 2023 was ineffective, prompting hospital presentation.
The medics state that while in India, the man manually handled buffaloes at a farm and drank unpasteurised goat milk.
The medics added that the man was a married, non-smoking, restaurant worker.
The medical paper outlined that had brucellosis not been considered, 'the patient could have developed serious complications'. After brucellosis was identified, the man made a full recovery.
Brucellosis
Brucellosis has an average onset of 2-4 weeks with an incubation period of five days to six months while symptoms include fever and malaise.
Severe, multi-systematic complications may develop, including arthritis, spondylitis, central nervous system disorders, hepatitis, respiratory disorders, and rashes.
The medics state that the case involving the restaurant worker emphasises the need for awareness of zoonoses in Ireland, which are an infectious diseases that are caused by a pathogen jumping from an animal to a human.
The medics also state that the case also highlights the importance of careful history-taking in returning travellers.
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