ALMATY, Kazakhstan, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- More than 500 people have been infected with brucellosis in southern Kazakhstan, reportedly from insufficient veterinary and sanitary measures.
The Ekspress-K newspaper said some veterinarians in the Kyzyl-Orda region do not have motor vehicles, sprayers and sanitizing units. As a result, the number of brucellosis cases there has reached 523.
According to the World Health Organization, brucellosis is transmitted from animals to humans through contaminated and untreated milk and milk products or by direct contact with infected animals and animal carcasses. Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and camels can transmit the disease.
WHO officials said brucellosis is accompanied by fever and has a marked effect on the musculoskeletal system evidenced by generalized aches and pains and associated with fatigue, prostration and mental depression.
The Kyzyl-Orda region adjoins the Aral Sea. The uninhabited Vozrozhdeniye island, shared now between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was the Soviet Union's biological weapons test site, where brucellosis and other agents were reportedly tested.
