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Detailed explanation-1: -BEIJING (Reuters) - More than 6, 000 people in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province in northwest China, have tested positive for a bacterial disease called brucellosis, the local government was cited as saying, in an outbreak caused by a leak at a vaccine plant over a year ago.

Detailed explanation-2: -Although brucellosis can be found worldwide, it is more common in countries that do not have effective public health and domestic animal health programs. Areas currently listed as high risk are: the Mediterranean Basin (Portugal, Spain, Southern France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, North Africa)

Detailed explanation-3: -The disease we now know as brucellosis was first discovered in the 1850s in Malta. It came to the attention of British medical officers serving on the island after the Crimean War. It was easy to eliminate the disease in British servicemen, but very difficult to reach Maltese citizens.

Detailed explanation-4: -The disease is named after the discoverer of the bacterium “David Bruce” in 1887. The name “Malta fever” is derived from the geographic endemic region where the fever is originally described. Brucellosis is almost always transmitted to humans from infected animals.

Detailed explanation-5: -Brucella canis (B. canis) is a gram-negative, facultative intracellular coccobacillus which has been reported in many regions of the world and is considered endemic in Southern USA, in Central and South America and in Mexico (4–8). B. canis also occurs in Canada (9).