Coxiella burnetii-positive PCR in febrile patients in rural and urban Africa

Abstract

Objectives: Q fever has been reported throughout the African continent. The objective of this study was to detect the presence of Coxiella burnetii in febrile patients from Africa.

Methods: Blood samples from febrile and non-febrile patients from six African countries and from France were investigated retrospectively for Q fever infection by molecular assays targeting the IS1111 and IS30A spacers.

Results: We tested 1888 febrile patients from Senegal, Mali, Tunisia, Algeria, Gabon, and Morocco and found one male adult patient (0.3%) infected with C. burnetii in Algeria and six positive patients (0.5%) in Senegal. For one patient from Senegal we determined that the infection was caused by C. burnetii genotype 35. In Senegal, more patients were infected with C. burnetii in Keur Momar Sarr (p=0.002) than in the other locations. Blood samples taken from 500 (51% males) non-febrile people from Senegal and France were all negative.

Conclusions: The installation of point-of-care laboratories in rural Africa can be a very effective tool for studying the epidemiology of many infectious diseases.

Keywords: Africa; Coxiella burnetii; Genotype; Multi-spacer sequence typing; Q fever.