Population Screening for Chronic Q-Fever Seven Years after a Major Outbreak.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

From 2007 through 2010, the Netherlands experienced a large Q-fever epidemic, with 4,107 notifications. The most serious complication of Q-fever is chronic Q-fever.

Method

In 2014, we contacted all 2,161 adult inhabitants of the first village in the Netherlands affected by the Q-fever epidemic and offered to test for antibodies against Coxiella burnetii using immunofluorescence assay (IFA) to screen for chronic infections and assess whether large-scale population screening elsewhere is warranted.

Results

Of the 1,517 participants, 33.8% were IFA-positive. Six IFA-positive participants had an IgG phase I titer ≥1:512. Two of these six participants were previously diagnosed with chronic Q-fever. Chronic infection was diagnosed in one of the other four parti

SUBMITTER: Morroy G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4489093 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature