An Ichilov Hospital spokesman on Thursday 7 Menachem Av confirmed two children diagnosed with Brucella bacteria were treated. The source of the bacteria was non-pasteurized camel milk they drank.

Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Dr. Galia Grisaru-Soen checked the children in question and the required notification was made to Health Ministry officials. Hospital officials add drinking non-pasteurized milk is dangerous and can lead to illness.

The Health Ministry on Thursday released a message to the media that inspectors in the center of the country were preparing to destroy four tons of non-pasteurized camel milk from an unknown source. The milk was traced to a business run by Eyal L. (Name on file) located in Moshav Sitria near Rehovot, which sells camel milk under the label “Bereshis Milk”.

In addition, the ministry’s district director, Dr. Ofra Chavkin is issuing a closure order to shut down the moshav business where the milk is sold.

Wikipedia

Brucella is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria. Brucella is the cause of brucellosis, which is a zoonosis transmitted by ingesting contaminated food (such as unpasteurized milk products), direct contact with an infected animal, or inhalation of aerosols.

Transmission from human to human, for example through sexual intercourse or from mother to child, is exceedingly rare, but possible. Minimum infectious exposure is between 10 and 100 organisms.

The different species of Brucella are genetically very similar, although each has a slightly different host specificity. Hence, the NCBI taxonomy includes most Brucella species under Brucella melitensis.

The many names of brucellosis include (human disease/animal disease):

· Malta fever/Bang’s disease

· Undulant fever/enzootic abortion

· Mediterranean fever/epizootic abortion

· Rock fever of Gibraltar/slinking of calves

· Gastric fever/ram epididymitis

· Contagious abortion/spontaneous abortion

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)