ABSTRACT
Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientı´ficas y Te´cnicas, Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquı´mica,
and Laboratorio de Inmunogene´tica, Hospital de Clı´nicas Jose´ de San Martı´n, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jorge C. Wallach
Servicio de Brucelosis, Hospital Francisco J. Mun˜iz, and Departamento de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Pablo C. Baldi
Instituto de Estudios de la Inmunidad Humoral, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientı´ficas y Te´cnicas, Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquı´mica,
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
INTRODUCTION
Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease of variable severity caused by several species of the genus Brucella. The disease is widely distributed, specially affecting the Mediterranean countries, Africa, Asia (including the Middle East), Mexico, and Central and South America. The infection affects both domestic and wildlife animals, and is usually transmitted to humans by direct contact with tissues or secretions from these animals.
