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Background: Brucellosis is considered the most important zoonosis in Jordan with high prevalence among man and livestock.Methods: This study was carried out on high risk people in 1992 in order to assess the seroprevalence of brucellosis in northern Jordan. The sera of 1236 individuals (636 at high risk and 600 controls) were evaluated using the Rose Bengal plate agglutination test (RBPT) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA-IgG) tests.Results: A significantly (P < 0.05) higher seroprevalence of brucellosis among high risk people (8.2 percent) compared to the control sample (0.5 percent) was found. The overall seroprevalence was significantly higher among sheep farmers and meat handlers than in other occupations tested. The seroprevalence increased with age and years at work, but was not influenced by sex or locality. The results indicated a higher seroprevalence among veterinarians in northern Jordan, compared to central Jordan but the difference was not significant. Seroprevalence was present only among veterinarians working in clinics especially in the working age group (34-43 years).Conclusion: The results of this study emphasized the importance of contact infections, namely contact with infected animals and their products, as a method of transmission of brucellosis compared to ingestion of contaminated animal products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abuharfeil N (Department of Allied Health Sciences, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid—Jordan) Abo-Shehada M N, EI-Sukhon S N and Atmeh R. Immune status of young adults to mumps virus infection in northern Jordan. 1989, : 690–692. Eight hundred and seventy-five sera, collected randomly from university students aged 18–24 years, were tested for mumps virus antibodies. The prevalence of seropositivity was 85.3% for males and 87.1% for females using the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay method (ELISA) and 83.4% for males and 77.6% for females using the micro-complement fixation test (CFT). The remaining 14.7%–16.7% of males and 12.9%–22.3% of females, who had non-reactive sera in ELISA and CFT tests respectively indicated the presence of a sizeable population with a high risk of contracting the infection and this recommends the implementation of routine vaccination against mumps in Jordan. The two techniques correlated well, though ELISA exhibited a higher sensitivity than CFT. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]