Q fever outbreak in industrial setting.
An outbreak of Q fever occurred in South Wales, United Kingdom, from July 15 through September 30, 2002. To investigate the outbreak a cohort and nested case-control study of persons who had worked at a cardboard manufacturing plant was conducted. The cohort included 282 employees and subcontractors, of whom 253 (90%) provided blood samples and 214 (76%) completed questionnaires. Ninety-five cases of acute Q fever were identified. The epidemic curve and other data suggested an outbreak source likely occurred August 5-9, 2002. Employees in the factory's offices were at greatest risk for infection (odds ratio 3.46; 95% confidence interval 1.38-9.06). The offices were undergoing renovation work around the time of likely exposure and contained straw board that had repeatedly been drilled. The outbreak may have been caused by aerosolization of Coxiella burnetii spore-like forms during drilling into contaminated straw board.
van Woerden
Hugo C
HC
National Public Health Service for Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom. vanwoerdenh1@cf.ac.uk
Mason
Brendan W
BW
Nehaul
Lika K
LK
Smith
Robert
R
Salmon
Roland L
RL
Healy
Brendan
B
Valappil
Manoj
M
Westmoreland
Diana
D
de Martin
Sarah
S
Evans
Meirion R
MR
Lloyd
Graham
G
Hamilton-Kirkwood
Marysia
M
Williams
Nina S
NS
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016997:Coxiella burnetii / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D010209:Paper; D011778:Q Fever / Q000453:epidemiology*