Brucellosis in Humans: Present Status and Advances in Current Diagnostic Landscape

Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that affects animals and humans, with the most common strains being Brucella abortus, Brucella melitensis, and Brucella suis . It is a significant public health threat, particularly in areas with poor hygiene, food safety, and veterinary care standards. Diagnostic tests for brucellosis include culture, serological tests, lateral flow assays, MALDI-TOF-MS, PCR, and multiplex tests. The gold standard for diagnosis is culture, but its sensitivity is not always high, particularly for neurobrucellosis. Serological tests are relatively simple and quick, and lateral flow assays have high sensitivity and specificity. Multiplex tests can rapidly identify the species and biovar of Brucella isolated by culture. Serological tests are crucial for diagnosing brucellosis, and molecular techniques offer several advantages over bacteriological isolation.

A thorough and extensive search was conducted in international databases, such as PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, and Google Scholar, from the year 2014 to 2024. The search terms included keywords such as "Brucellosis," "Malta Fever," "Mediterranean fever," " Brucella Infection," " Brucella ," and "Undulant Fever." Duplicate articles were removed, and the remaining studies were screened. The suitable articles were then reviewed for the study.

The current review was carried out to investigate the diagnostic tests available for detecting brucellosis. The study includes information on recent advances in evaluating diagnostic techniques, their clinical value, and their respective pros and cons.

Understanding the disease's risk may aid in the development and implementation of effective disease control measures to raise public awareness of brucellosis.