Acute Q fever in patients with an influenza-like illness in regional New South Wales, Australia.
Introduction Query (Q) fever is a zoonosis caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetii typically presenting as an influenza-like illness (ILI) with or without hepatitis. The infection may be missed by clinicians in settings of low endemicity, as the presentation is clinically not specific, and there a...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:36659ac14d304a9c8eeb01b5c6008d3e 2024-09-09T19:27:03+00:00 Acute Q fever in patients with an influenza-like illness in regional New South Wales, Australia. Chaturaka Rodrigo Gregory Walker Andrea T K Sevendal Chelsea Nguyen Sacha Stelzer-Braid William Rawlinson Stephen Graves Heather F Gidding John Stenos Andrew R Lloyd 2024-08-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0012385 https://doaj.org/article/36659ac14d304a9c8eeb01b5c6008d3e EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0012385 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0012385 https://doaj.org/article/36659ac14d304a9c8eeb01b5c6008d3e PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 18, Iss 8, p e0012385 (2024) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2024 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0012385 2024-08-26T15:21:14Z Introduction Query (Q) fever is a zoonosis caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetii typically presenting as an influenza-like illness (ILI) with or without hepatitis. The infection may be missed by clinicians in settings of low endemicity, as the presentation is clinically not specific, and there are many more common differential diagnoses for ILI including SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods Residual serum samples were retrospectively tested for Phase 1 and 2 Q fever-specific IgM, IgG, IgA antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence and C. burnetii DNA by polymerase chain reaction. They had not been previously tested for Q fever, originating from undiagnosed patients with probable ILI, aged 10-70 years and living in regional New South Wales, Australia. The results were compared with contemperaneous data on acute Q fever diagnostic tests which had been performed based on clinicians requests from a geographically similar population. Results Only one (0.2%) instance of missed acute Q fever was identified after testing samples from 542 eligible patients who had probable ILI between 2016-2023. Laboratory data showed that during the same period, 731 samples were tested for acute Q fever for clinician-initiated requests and of those 70 (9.6%) were positive. Probability of being diagnosed with Q fever after a clinician initiated request was similar regardless of the patients sex, age and the calendar year of sampling. Conclusion In this sample, Q fever was most likely to be diagnosed via clinician requested testing rather than by testing of undiagnosed patients with an influenza like illness. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 18 8 e0012385 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Chaturaka Rodrigo Gregory Walker Andrea T K Sevendal Chelsea Nguyen Sacha Stelzer-Braid William Rawlinson Stephen Graves Heather F Gidding John Stenos Andrew R Lloyd Acute Q fever in patients with an influenza-like illness in regional New South Wales, Australia. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Introduction Query (Q) fever is a zoonosis caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetii typically presenting as an influenza-like illness (ILI) with or without hepatitis. The infection may be missed by clinicians in settings of low endemicity, as the presentation is clinically not specific, and there are many more common differential diagnoses for ILI including SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods Residual serum samples were retrospectively tested for Phase 1 and 2 Q fever-specific IgM, IgG, IgA antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence and C. burnetii DNA by polymerase chain reaction. They had not been previously tested for Q fever, originating from undiagnosed patients with probable ILI, aged 10-70 years and living in regional New South Wales, Australia. The results were compared with contemperaneous data on acute Q fever diagnostic tests which had been performed based on clinicians requests from a geographically similar population. Results Only one (0.2%) instance of missed acute Q fever was identified after testing samples from 542 eligible patients who had probable ILI between 2016-2023. Laboratory data showed that during the same period, 731 samples were tested for acute Q fever for clinician-initiated requests and of those 70 (9.6%) were positive. Probability of being diagnosed with Q fever after a clinician initiated request was similar regardless of the patients sex, age and the calendar year of sampling. Conclusion In this sample, Q fever was most likely to be diagnosed via clinician requested testing rather than by testing of undiagnosed patients with an influenza like illness. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Chaturaka Rodrigo Gregory Walker Andrea T K Sevendal Chelsea Nguyen Sacha Stelzer-Braid William Rawlinson Stephen Graves Heather F Gidding John Stenos Andrew R Lloyd |
author_facet |
Chaturaka Rodrigo Gregory Walker Andrea T K Sevendal Chelsea Nguyen Sacha Stelzer-Braid William Rawlinson Stephen Graves Heather F Gidding John Stenos Andrew R Lloyd |
author_sort |
Chaturaka Rodrigo |
title |
Acute Q fever in patients with an influenza-like illness in regional New South Wales, Australia. |
title_short |
Acute Q fever in patients with an influenza-like illness in regional New South Wales, Australia. |
title_full |
Acute Q fever in patients with an influenza-like illness in regional New South Wales, Australia. |
title_fullStr |
Acute Q fever in patients with an influenza-like illness in regional New South Wales, Australia. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Acute Q fever in patients with an influenza-like illness in regional New South Wales, Australia. |
title_sort |
acute q fever in patients with an influenza-like illness in regional new south wales, australia. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0012385 https://doaj.org/article/36659ac14d304a9c8eeb01b5c6008d3e |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 18, Iss 8, p e0012385 (2024) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0012385 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0012385 https://doaj.org/article/36659ac14d304a9c8eeb01b5c6008d3e |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0012385 |
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PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
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e0012385 |
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