Q Fever

Q (Query) fever is characterized by sudden onset of fever, sweat, severe retro-orbital headache, loss of appetite, weakness and pneumonia. An intracellular anthropozoonotic agent Coxiella burnetii is spread by domestic animals, goats, sheep and cattle through their placenta, amniotic fluid, urine, faeces and milk. It has worldwide distribution. It is a potential bioterrorism agent under category B because of its characters, contagious and stable in aerosol in a wide range of temperatures, survives for 60 days on surfaces and has the lowest infective dose (ID50 is 1).