Q fever

Disease	Injury	Nutrition	Poison

Special Topic	Surgery	Symptoms	Test

Temperature measurement

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Prevention

Q fever

Alternative Names:

Query fever

Symptoms:

Acute Q fever:

flu-like: fever, headache, muscle pains
pneumonia: fever, cough, chest pain upon breathing, shortness of breath
hepatitis: jaundice, clay colored stools, fever

Chronic Q fever: prolonged fever, night sweats, chills, fatigue, shortness of breath.

Signs and tests:

The diagnosis of Q fever should be suspected in individuals with appropriate exposure histories who develop flu-like symptoms, pneumonia, hepatitis, or endocarditis. The mainstay for diagnosis of Q fever is a blood antibody test (serology) -- as it is very difficult to grow the causative bacteria in culture.

Review Date: 8/7/2002
Reviewed By: Camille Kotton, M.D., Infectious Diseases Division, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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