The Effectiveness of Vitamin A on the Symptoms of Brucellosis

J Babol Univ Med Sci; 23; 2021; PP: 252-258 Received: Aug 14 2020, Revised: Oct 5 2020, Accepted: Oct 27 2020. ABSTRACT BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Vitamin A in the immune system is considered as an anti-inflammatory vitamin that has anti-infective effects in infectious diseases. Therefore, this study was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of vitamin A as one of the complementary therapies in the treatment of brucellosis. METHODS: In this experimental study, 110 people were selected as brucellosis patients based on serological test and were placed in two groups of control and intervention. In addition to the usual drugs for the treatment of brucellosis, patients in the intervention group received oral vitamin A at a dose of 25,000 units pre day for 6 weeks, and patients in the control group did not receive vitamin A. After the intervention, the response to treatment was evaluated based on the number of days of fever, chills, sweating, arthralgia, myalgia, anorexia, chronicity and recurrence using standard methods in the two groups. FINDINGS: In terms of days with fever (14.72±27.61 vs. 53.45±141.14), sweating (19.27±28.98 vs. 61.09±142.35), arthralgia (56±96.83 vs. 53.45±158.18), myalgia (13.45±27.23 vs. 52.36±141.44) and anorexia (13.30±47.39 vs. 51.81±129.8), a significant decrease was observed in the intervention group compared to the control (p<0.05). There was no difference between the intervention and control groups in terms of chills (p=0.122). The recurrence rate in the control and intervention groups was 25.5% and 7.3%, respectively, and the chronicity rate was 3.6% and 0%, respectively, which was statistically significant (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Based on the results of the study, it can be said that vitamin A leads to faster improvement of brucellosis symptoms and it can be used as a complementary treatment for brucellosis.