Better Something than Nothing: A Data-Driven Method for Mitigating Chronic Conditions of Human Brucellosis in China (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED Brucellosis is a type of serious zoonosis disease caused by the infection of various Brucella species. The symptoms of Brucellosis generally include fever, fatigue, and night sweat, and there is a significant variance in symptoms among patients. It is believed that Brucellosis, if not diagnosed and treated in a timely manner, can develop into a chronic condition, but a quantitative guideline is lacking. In this research, we systematically study the Brucellosis data from northern area of China and develop data mining models to explore the association between patients features and various Brucellosis symptoms. We also identify the key variables affecting the development of chronic conditions. Our results show that people working in agriculture, farming, stock breeding and slaughtering related jobs are less likely to develop fever symptoms during infection. Additionally, females or younger patients are more likely to experience fevers with high body temperature. Our results also show that treatment delay has a significant impact on the development of chronic Brucellosis, but the impact is attenuated for diagnosis delay. In other words, non-specific medical treatment can mitigate chronic condition development in the absence of a Brucellosis diagnosis.