European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

BRUCELLOSIS AMONG RAGPICKERS IN AND AROUND KOLKATA - A PILOT STUDY

Devarati Dutta, Debasmita Chatterjee and Satadal Das*

ABSTRACT

Poverty is a lingering problem in developing countries like India. Rag-pickers probably remain at the base of a hierarchy of poor population in India. They are mainly involved in picking up solid wastes. Due to their long term involvement in collecting garbage and waste products from the community they easily get contracted with serious ailments and infectious diseases. One of the main criteria of acquiring the disease brucellosis is having direct contact with infected animal or their infected tissue and/or body fluids. The infected animal parts often contaminate community garbage. This study was conducted to explore the occurrence of this zoonotic disease among rag-pickers. The serological and molecular tests of brucellosis conducted in this study revealed a significant occurrence (40.0%) of this particular disease among them. In conclusion, as this issue was not dealt earlier in this country more studies in this line can create awareness and protect the life of rag-pickers from brucellosis and similar diseases.

Keywords: Rag-pickers, brucellosis, serological test, PCR.