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The current therapeutical strategies in human brucellosis

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Abstract

Prompt and adequate treatment of human brucellosis continues to be the most important strategy in its management, as eradication of animal brucellosis is not possible so far, and there is no adequate vaccine for humans. The goal of antibrucellar treatment is to alleviate and shorten the symptomatic period and reduce complications, relapses, and chronicity. Contemporary trends in the treatment of human brucellosis are postulated on the ability of Brucellae to persist in host macrophages through the inhibition of phagolysosome fusion and to survive for prolonged periods intracellularly without restricting basic cellular functions. As a result of this and despite satisfactory antibiotic treatment, relapses and therapeutical failures are inevitable to a certain degree. The current principles for the treatment of brucellosis advocate for a long enough treatment duration combined with antimicrobial regimens that possess activity in the intracellular acidic environment. In the future, other antimicrobial agents, immunomodulation, decrease in the intracellular acidic environment, or development of agents that would act on well-defined molecular bacterial targets, might be incorporated to improve the therapeutical effects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Faculty of Medicine, University Clinic for Infectious Diseases, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia

    Mile Bosilkovski

  2. Working Group On Zoonoses, International Society for Chemotherapy, Aberdeen, UK

    Mile Bosilkovski

  3. Brucellosis Research Center, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

    Mile Bosilkovski & Fariba Keramat

  4. Department of Infectious Diseases, University Clinical Hospital Mostar, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Jurica Arapović

  5. Faculty of Medicine, University of Mostar, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Jurica Arapović

Authors
  1. Mile Bosilkovski
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  2. Fariba Keramat
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  3. Jurica Arapović
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Correspondence to Mile Bosilkovski or Jurica Arapović.

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Bosilkovski, M., Keramat, F. & Arapović, J. The current therapeutical strategies in human brucellosis. Infection 49, 823–832 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-021-01586-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-021-01586-w

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