Seroprevalence of Brucellosis in HIV-Infected Patients in Sanandaj, Iran

Infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) leads to cellular immune deficiency and theoretically patients infected with HIV are susceptible to brucellosis.. The current study aimed to determine brucellosis rate in the patients infected with HIV..Patients and We included 89 HIV+ patients from Sanandaj Consultation Center for Behavioral Diseases. Patients signed informed written consent before filling out the questionnaire. After serum collection, standard Wright tube, Coombs-Wright and 2ME-Wright tests were performed. Moreover, blood samples obtained from 502 individuals, who were not infected with HIV, were served as the control.. The mean age of participants in the experimental and control groups were 33.31 ± 7.47 and 34.38 ± 11.29 years, respectively. In the Wright tube test for the HIV+ group, 71 individuals (79.8%) did not have an antibody against Brucella spp., while 18 patients (20.2%) were positive for the antibody. According to the results of Wright tube test for the control group, 63 (12.5%) participants were positive for anti-Brucella antibody. The frequency of antibody against Brucella spp. in the HIV+ group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P = 0.042).. HIV positive individuals in areas endemic for brucellosis must be investigated for the disease..