Alice Catherine Evans in 1917 and published her work in the "Journal of Infectious Diseases" in 1918. She was met with skepticism, particularly because she was a woman and did not have a Ph.D. She warned that raw milk should be pasteurized to protect people from various diseases. During the 1920s, scientists around the world made the same findings, and eventually, "Brucella" was confirmed as the disease that caused what was then known as undulant fever and Malta fever. Her findings led to the pasteurization of milk in 1930. As a result, the incidence of brucellosis in the United States was significantly reduced.
Brucellosis followed up serologically for six months. Recently published experience confirms that prolonged and frequent serological follow-up consumes significant resources without yielding much information, and is burdensome for the affected staff, who often fail to comply. The side effects of the usual recommended regimen of rifampicin and doxycycline for three weeks also reduce treatment adherence. As no evidence shows treatment with two drugs is superior to monotherapy, British guidelines now recommend doxycycline alone for three weeks and a less onerous follow-up protocol. Under the name "Malta fever", the disease now called brucellosis first came to the attention of British medical officers