The control of human brucellosis in the Campania region: an updating of knowledge and results obtained by the third year of the programme activities.

A control programme for brucellosis in Campania was started in 1988, in the province of Caserta, and implied different actions at the regional and provincial levels. The section of the work described here regards the updating of the results obtained during the third year of the project activity. The action performed included experimentation of data sheets in the province of Caserta to gain information on the factors conditioning brucellosis, gathering and analysis of ISTAT data on the size of livestock population as an actual or potential source of infection for man, epidemiological surveillance of human cases, census of dairies, and public health measures taken by the Regional Council. The results show that improvement of human brucellosis surveillance is in progress, whereas the programme implementation has provided a clearer picture of the situation with better understanding of the factors affecting the disease occurrence. Such problems posed by the project management as difficult maintenance of sufficient collaboration between veterinarians and physicians, scarce participation of local and regional administrations, resistance opposed by some categories, and reduced availability of financial resources are also discussed.