The Frequency of Q Fever in the Human Population of Western Macedonia

Abstract

Q fever is an acute and rarely chronic, zoonotic disease. It is caused by Coxiella burnetii, an obligate intracellular, pleomorphic coccobacillus possessing a prototypic gram-negative bacterial cell wall structure. Our study is aimed at determining the epidemiological situation of this infection in the human population of Western Macedonia. The serological test was conducted using the ELISA test kit by the German SERION Company. The serum isolated from the blood was kept at -30°C until testing. The sera were properly diluted based on the respective protocol, in the ratio of 1: 400, in two phases (dilution 1: 100 and 1: 4). A total of 520 serums were checked of all ages from people with different epidemiological conditions, of which 114 resulted positive, with positivity rate of about 21.90%. The positivity was based on the Cut-off value, which in positive cases was over 0,5. According to our study, the spreading of the infection was affected by lack of knowledge about the preventive measures, including: lack of education on the source and mode of transmission of the infection, the methods of disinfection and disposal of animal products containing C. burnetii, animal treatments, the level of living conditions, etc. Yet, based on the findings of foreign authors, we think that the infection of the people comes as a result of the presence of the infection in animals which plays an important role in spreading the cause in the environment, as well as through its airborne distribution.

Keywords: Q fever, zoonotic disease, Elisa test, human, seropositive.