Acute Q Fever Case Detection among Acute Febrile Illness Patients, Thailand, 2002–2005

Abstract

Acute Q fever cases were identified from a hospital-based acute febrile illness study conducted in six community hospitals in rural north and northeast Thailand from 2002 to 2005. Of 1,784 participants that underwent testing, nine (0.5%) participants were identified in this case-series as acute Q fever cases. Eight case-patients were located in one province. Four case-patients were hospitalized. Median age was 13 years (range: 7-69); five were male. The proportion of children with acute Q fever infection was similar to adults ( = 0.17). This previously unrecognized at-risk group, school-age children, indicates that future studies and prevention interventions should target this population. The heterogeneity of disease burden across Thailand and milder clinical presentations found in this case-series should be considered in future studies. As diagnosis based on serology is limited during the acute phase of the disease, other diagnostic options, such as polymerase chain reaction, should be explored to improve acute case detection.

Evaluation of the Diagnostic Potential of Recombinant Coxiella burnetii Com1 in an ELISA for the Diagnosis of Q Fever in Sheep, Goats and Cattle

“…The typical course of disease is an acute, often self-limiting flu-like illness. Although the chronic form of human Q fever is less common, the consequences, e.g., endocarditis, encephalitis and hepatitis, are even more severe [ 11 , 12 , 13 ]. The small size of the bacterium, the high number of bacteria excreted via birth products, and aerosol transmission are the main reasons for large-scale outbreaks in populations living in close proximity to lambing mother herds as demonstrated during the Dutch outbreak between 2007 and 2010 [ 14 ].…”

Epidemiological scenario of Q fever hospitalized patients in the Spanish Health System: What’s new

“…QF is considered a benign disease (Damasceno and Guerra, 2018;Greiner et al, 2018), since only 2-5% of the patients diagnosed with QF require hospitalization (Greiner et al, 2018;Fraile Fariñas and Muñoz Collado, 2010). Infection in humans occurs mainly by inhaling pseudospores, although other avenues of minor importance include transfusions, interhuman transmission and tick bites (Damasceno and Guerra, 2018;Honarmand, 2012;Milazzo et al, 2002;Kruszewska et al, 1996).…”

Partial DnaK protein expression from Coxiella-like endosymbiont of Rhipicephalus annulatus tick

“…was also detected in R . microplus ticks and was later commonly found to be CLEs [ 6 , 7 , 9 , 10 , 15 ]. Furthermore, in 2002–2018, humans who worked at veterinary farms and were constantly exposed to animal products such as milk, placenta and feces also had a high seroprevalence of antibodies against C .…”

“…Even if they have already cooked the placenta, contamination may occur during food preparation [ 6 ]. Therefore, a history of acute and chronic Q fever was consistently found in the northern and northeastern regions of Thailand [ 5 , 13 – 15 ]. For this reason, R .…”

“…In the case of animals, the seroprevalence of antibodies against C . burnetii has been observed in dairy cattle, beef cattle, goats, and chickens [ 5 , 10 , 13 – 15 ]. In addition, Coxiella -like endosymbionts (CLEs) were reported from different tick species in several regions of Thailand from 2011 to 2019.…”