Netherlands - The health status of a village population, 7 years after a major Q fever outbreak

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.nltimes.nl/2016/05/31/74-...ever-outbreak/

Some 74 people killed by Q-Fever outbreak
Posted on May 31, 2016 by Janene Pieters

The official death toll of people affected by Q-Fever since the outbreak in 2007 now stands at 74, an increase of 26 since the number was last updated, NU.nl reports.

The reason for the increase in deaths can be attributed to patients still carrying the live bacteria after the 2007 outbreak. The disease has symptoms of fever, headache, muscle aches and a decreased heart rate, among other things...

[Gert van der Hoek]

Table of Contents - April 2016 - Volume 144, Issue 06

The health status of a village population, 7 years after a major Q fever outbreak

G. MORROY^{a1a2 c1}, W. VAN DER HOEK^a3, Z. D. NANVER^a1, P. M. SCHNEEBERGER^a4, C. P. BLEEKER-ROVERS^a5, J. VAN DER VELDEN^a2 and R. A. COUTINHO<sup>a6


a1</sup> Department of Infectious Disease Control, Municipal Health Service Hart voor Brabant, 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
^a2 Academic Collaborative Centre AMPHI, Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud university medical center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
^a3 Department for Respiratory Infections, Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands
^a4 Department of Medical Microbiology, Jeroen Bosch Hospital, The Netherlands
^a5 Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Radboud Expertise Center for Q fever, Radboud university medical center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
^a6 Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands

SUMMARY

From 2007 to 2010, The Netherlands experienced a major Q fever outbreak with more than 4000 notifications. Previous studies suggested that Q fever patients could suffer long-term post-infection health impairments, especially fatigue.

Our objective was to assess the Coxiella burnetii antibody prevalence and health status including fatigue, and assess their interrelationship in Herpen, a high-incidence village, 7 years after the outbreak began.

In 2014, we invited all 2161 adult inhabitants for a questionnaire and a C. burnetii indirect fluorescence antibody assay (IFA). The health status was measured with the Nijmegen Clinical Screening Instrument (NCSI), consisting of eight subdomains including fatigue.

Of the 70?1% (1517/2161) participants, 33?8% (513/1517) were IFA positive. Of 147 participants who were IFA positive in 2007, 25 (17%) seroreverted and were now IFA negative. Not positive IFA status, but age <50 years, smoking and co-morbidity, were independent risk factors for fatigue. Notified participants reported significantly more often fatigue (31/49, 63%) than non-notified IFA-positive participants (150/451, 33%).

Although fatigue is a common sequel after acute Q fever, in this community-based survey we found no difference in fatigue levels between participants with and without C. burnetii antibodies.