Malta fever is caused by :

Brucella melitensis Malta fever in another name for Brucellosis Brucellosis is a zoonosis primarily affecting goats, sheep, cattle, buffaloes, pigs. The human disease was recognized along the mediterranean region from very early times and has been known under various names such as Mediterranean fever, Malta fever and undulant fever. A British army doctor, David Brue isolated a small microorganism from the spleen of fatal cases in Malta and transmitted the disease to monkeys experimentally. This was named Brucella melitensis (Bruella after Bruce, melitetzis after Melita the roman name for malta) More on Brucellosis Brucella is a Grain negative cocobacilli that can infect wide range of mammals from rodents to killer whales. They are of paicular zoonotic and economic impoance as a cause of highly transmissible disease in cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. Humans acquire Brucella from direct contact with infected animal ineat or aboed placentas or ingestion of infected milk products. The patients of Brucellosis will most likely be a worker in the meat packing industry (abettoir worker), a veterinarian, a farmer or a traveller who consumes dairy products. All the names of Brucella species are based on the animals they infect: Brucella melitensis (Goats) Brucella abous (causes aboions in cows) Brucella suis Pigs Brucella Canis Dogs Pathogenesis Brucella penetrates the skin, conj unctiva, lungs or G.I. tract. However neither Buboes, nor primary skin ulcer appear. Penetration is followed by lymphatic spread, facultative intracellular growth in macrophages and blood and organ invasion. The intra cellular parasites localize in reticuloendothelial system forming abscesses or granuloinatous lesion. Clinical feature The symptoms are systemic with fever, chills, sweats, loss of appetite, backache, headache and sometimes lymphadenopathy. The fever usually peaks in the evening and slowly returns to normal by morning. The slow rise in temperature during the day, declining at night has led to its other name undulant fever. These symptoms can last from months to years, but founately the disease is rarely fatal. Diagnosis Diagnosis of active disease is best made by culture of the organism from blood, bone marrow, liver or lymph nodes. Castaneda method of blood culture is commonly used. In the absence of blood culture, the diagnosis of Brucellosis usually depends upon the serological tests, the results of which tend to vary with the stage of the infection.