Ko W C, Liang C C, Chen H Y, Chuang Y C
Department of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Medical College, Tainan, Taiwan.
J Formos Med Assoc. 2000 Jan;99(1):33-8.
The emergence of infection with Coxiella burnetii, the causative organism of Q fever, has been only recently recognized in Taiwan. Several cases of acute Q fever infection have been described, but the prevalence of antibodies to C. burnetii in the general population in Taiwan has not been reported. Thus, we studied the seroprevalence of C. burnetii infection in southern Taiwan.
We conducted a retrospective serosurvey to examine the prevalence of C. burnetii infection among subjects admitted to a rural hospital in Taiwan for various reasons, and among presumably healthy attendees of a routine physical examination clinic of an urban public hospital. The diagnosis of C. burnetii infection required the presence of antibodies to both phase I and II antigens (titer > or = 1:16) or only to phase II antigens (titer > or = 1:256), as detected by indirect immunofluorescence assay.
The prevalence of C. burnetii infection was 4.2% in both the in-patient (15/357) and physical examination participant (11/259) populations. None of these subjects had signs compatible with acute Q fever (febrile illness within the past 3 months). The antibody prevalence rate was higher in males than in females, and peaked in persons aged 61 to 70 years.
These data suggest that C. burnetii infection is not rare in southern Taiwan and does not cause clinical symptoms in all infected patients.
台湾地区直到最近才认识到贝纳柯克斯体感染的出现，贝纳柯克斯体是Q热的病原体。已描述了几例急性Q热感染病例，但台湾地区普通人群中贝纳柯克斯体抗体的流行情况尚未见报道。因此，我们研究了台湾南部地区贝纳柯克斯体感染的血清学流行情况。
我们进行了一项回顾性血清学调查，以检查台湾一家乡村医院因各种原因入院的患者以及一家城市公立医院常规体检诊所的健康体检者中贝纳柯克斯体感染的流行情况。贝纳柯克斯体感染的诊断要求通过间接免疫荧光法检测到同时存在针对I相和II相抗原的抗体（滴度≥1:16）或仅针对II相抗原的抗体（滴度≥1:256）。
住院患者（15/357）和体检参与者（11/259）人群中贝纳柯克斯体感染的流行率均为4.2%。这些受试者中没有一人有与急性Q热相符的体征（过去3个月内发热性疾病）。男性的抗体流行率高于女性，且在61至70岁人群中达到峰值。
这些数据表明，贝纳柯克斯体感染在台湾南部并不罕见，且并非所有感染患者都会出现临床症状。
