LABORATORY INFECTIONS WITH Q FEVER
Abstract
A laboratory epidemic of Q fever appeared in the Hamburg Tropical Institute at the end of 1947 and beginning of 1948. The diagnosis was confirmed clinically or etiologically in seven persons. In four other cases there was merely a suspicion that it was also a question of Q fever. The cases ran their course clinically in the same manner as is known to have occurred in other laboratory epidemics. In four cases the diagnosis was based on the microscopic detection of the agent. A successful verification of the agent was made after transferring whole blood to mice and guinea-pigs, after transferring sputum to mice, after feeding lice and ticks on the patient with subsequent inoculation of organ trituration in mice. The agent also still circulates in the blood for rather a long time, but was not detected in all cases studied in this way. The disease appeared only when the strain kept in mouse lungs and mouse spleen had undergone a tick passage. The real source of the infection is not known. An infection probably occurs due to dust containing the agent. The peculiarities of the epidemiology of Q fever may find an explanation in variations in the agent's virulence.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1963
- Accession Number
- AD0836694
Entities
People
- E. G. Nauck
- F. Weyer
Organizations
- United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories