History and Nomenclature
Under the name Malta fever, the disease now called brucellosis first came to the attention of British medical officers in the 1850s in Malta during the Crimean War. The causal relationship between organism and disease was first established in 1887 by Dr. David Bruce.
In 1897, Danish veterinarian Bernhard Bang isolated Brucella abortus as the agent; and the additional name Bang's disease was assigned.
Maltese doctor and archaeologist Sir Themistocles Zammit earned a knighthood for identifying unpasteurized milk as the major source of the pathogen in 1905, and it has since become known as Malta Fever. In cattle, this disease is also known as contagious abortion and infectious abortion.
The popular name undulant fever originates from the characteristic undulance (or "wave-like" nature) of the fever, which rises and falls over weeks in untreated patients. In the 20th century, this name, along with brucellosis (after Brucella, named for Dr. Bruce), gradually replaced the 19th century names Mediterranean fever and Malta fever.
In 1989, neurologists in Saudi Arabia discovered neurobrucellosis, a neurological involvement in brucellosis.
The following obsolete names have previously been applied to brucellosis:
- Brucelliasis
- Bruce's septicemia
- Chumble fever
- continued fever
- Crimean fever
- Cyprus fever
- febris melitensis
- febris undulans
- Fist of mercy
- goat fever
- melitensis septicemia
- melitococcosis
- milk sickness
- mountain fever
- Neapolitan fever
- Satan's fever
- slow fever
- Scottish Delight
- Jones Disease
Read more about this topic: Brucellosis
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