Q fever in Greece: Findings of a 13 years surveillance study
| Autor: | Dimosthenis Chochlakis, Emmanouil Yachnakis, Iosif Vranakis, Sofia Kokkini, Yannis Tselentis, Anna Psaroulaki |
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| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male medicine.medical_specialty Pediatrics Surveillance study 040301 veterinary sciences 030231 tropical medicine Immunology Q fever Disease Sensitivity and Specificity Microbiology Zoonotic disease 0403 veterinary science 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Epidemiology medicine Humans Immunology and Allergy Public Health Surveillance Seroconversion Aged Greece General Veterinary biology Age Factors 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences General Medicine Middle Aged medicine.disease Coxiella burnetii biology.organism_classification Antibodies Bacterial Pneumonia Infectious Diseases Immunoglobulin M Immunoglobulin G Female Q Fever |
| Zdroj: | Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. 69:101340 |
| ISSN: | 0147-9571 |
| Popis: | Q fever is an endemic disease in different parts of Greece. The current study aimed to investigate the prevalence of acute Q fever disease in Greece through the operation of the national reference centre for Q fever. A total of 5397 sera were received from febrile patients under the suspicion of Q fever infection during a 13 years period (2001–20013). A questionnaire was filled in by the clinicians containing certain clinical/epidemiological/demographic information. The diagnosis was based both on IFA (IgG and IgM phase II antibodies against Coxiella burnetii) and on molecular means. A total of 685 (12.7 %) samples were initially tested positive for acute Q fever. The mean (±SD) age of patients was 55.3 years (±18.7). Out of the 489 convalescent samples, 134 (27.4 %) samples indicated a minimum of a four-fold seroconversion and were considered as laboratory confirmed cases of acute Q fever. Pneumonia was the most frequently encountered clinical symptom with presence in 6.8 % of all positive samples. Forty six (46) patients were laboratory confirmed as chronic Q fever cases. Climate seemed to influence the distribution of Q fever cases throughout the years. The findings of the current study comply with past studies carried out elsewhere that had demonstrated a clear relation of the disease with temperature, south winds, etc. This study represents the first large scale attempt to gather a long period information on Q fever infection in Greece. The findings of the current study support the fact that Q fever is an important endemic zoonotic disease in Greece and needs increased awareness by clinical physicians and health care system. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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