title: Q fever epidemic in Victorian general practice.
abstract: In 1979, 110 people associated with a local rural abattoir presented with an acute febrile illness thought to be Q fever. Of these, 70 were shown by serotesting to have had Q fever, and one was shown to have had leptospirosis alone. Four individuals had mixed infections of Q fever with another zoonotic infection, two with leptospirosis, and two with brucellosis. Only 44% of suspected cases of Q fever were shown to have complement-fixing antibodies to Q fever four weeks after the infection, but 74% had anti-bodies 12 weeks after infection. This epidemic of Q fever occurred soon after the abattoir began to slaughter feral goats for the first time; there is reason to believe that the epidemic may have been related to the introduction of this practice.
mesh_terms: D000003:Abattoirs; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D001315:Australia; D003168:Complement Fixation Tests; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006041:Goats / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D011778:Q Fever / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial