Open AccessOutbreak of Q-fever in a Yugoslav army unit in wartime conditions
Author(s) -
Radovan Čekanac,
Veselin Lukac,
M Cobeljić
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
vojnosanitetski pregled
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 2406-0720
pISSN - 0042-8450
DOI - 10.2298/vsp0202157c
Subject(s) - outbreak , q fever , medicine , etiology , pneumonia , disease , veterinary medicine , virology
In an outbreak of Q-fever in an Army unit lasting 9 days, 20 (13.4%) soldiers had contracted a disease. The outbreak occurred due to the entry of the unit into the focus originated by lambing and pasture of infected sheep. The source of the infection was the contaminated dust from the grassland where the soldiers were training, and they were infected by aerogenic way. In 11 (55%) patients, the disease was manifested as pneumonia that was radiologically confirmed in 7 (35%) patients, while the rest were with the symptoms of influenza and upper airways infection. As soon as tetracycline was administered, health state of the patients was significantly improved and all were released as cured after the treatment. Finding of the antibodies to Coxiella burneti in 66.6% of the patients confirmed the etiology of the disease in this outbreak.