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.
National Public Health Service for Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom. vanwoerdenh1@cf.ac.uk
Hugo C
HC
van Woerden
Brendan W
BW
Mason
Lika K
LK
Nehaul
Robert
R
Smith
Roland L
RL
Salmon
Brendan
B
Healy
Manoj
M
Valappil
Diana
D
Westmoreland
Sarah
S
de Martin
Meirion R
MR
Evans
Graham
G
Lloyd
Marysia
M
Hamilton-Kirkwood
Nina S
NS
Williams
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*