Q fever – clinical picture

Overview

Described are the clinical manifestations of acute and chronic Q fever. Most frequently, acute Q fever presents itself as a febrile influenza-like illness, atypical pneumonia, or hepatitis. Seldom in the acute stage there are present meningoencephalitis, neuritis of the optic nerve or other cerebral nerves, pleuritis, myopericarditis, gastroenteritis, pancreatitis, lymphadenopathy, erythema nodosum, maculopapular rash and purpura, bone marrow necrosis, glomerulonephritis, orchitis, epididymitis, or other rare syndromes. While mortality in acute Q fever reaches only 1%, chronic Q fever is a serious and often a fatal illness with 65% death rate. The most frequent manifestations of chronic Q fever are cultivation-negative endocarditis, infections of aneurysms and grafts of vessels, osteomyelitis, osteoarthritis, granulomatous hepatitis, chronic lung infections, and pericarditis.

Key words:
Coxiella burnetti – acute and chronic Q fever – clinical picture.