Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 2019 Feb 19;14(2):e0211781.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211781. eCollection 2019.

Seroprevalence of Q fever among high-risk occupations in the Ilam province, the west of Iran

Ehsan Mostafavi  1   2 , Leila Molaeipoor  1   2 , Saber Esmaeili  1   2   3 , Ahmad Ghasemi  1   2   3 , Maedeh Kamalizad  1   2 , Manijeh Yousefi Behzadi  1   2 , Razi Naserifar  4 , Mehdi Rohani  2   5 , Abdolrazagh Hashemi Shahraki  1   2
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Seroprevalence of Q fever among high-risk occupations in the Ilam province, the west of Iran

Ehsan Mostafavi et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Q fever is a zoonotic disease of great public health importance in Iran. This disease is presented with high phase I antibody development in chronic and high phase II antibody in the acute form of illness. This study was conducted to evaluate the seroprevalence of Q fever among high-risk occupations in the Ilam province in Western Iran.

Methods and findings: In this cross-sectional study, 367 sera samples were collected from five groups comprised of animal husbandry workers, farmers, butchers, slaughterhouse workers, and park rangers. The collected sera were tested for IgG antibodies against Coxiella burnetii using ELISA. The seroprevalence of antibodies against C. burnetii in phase I and II was 24.38% and 26.37%, respectively (i.e., 32.42% overall). Low educational level, living in rural areas, keeping sheep/goats, ages older than 50 years, and a history of arthropod bites positively correlated with increased risk of Q fever infection. Animal husbandry workers (45.13%) were at higher risk of contracting Q fever compared with other occupations in the study (17.11%).

Conclusions: High seroprevalence of C. burnetii among high-risk occupations is a serious challenge in the Ilam province. In addition, the high seroprevalence of endemic Q fever in rural and nomadic areas and a higher concentration of occupations who are directly engaged with livestock demonstrate the critical need for preventive medicine education and training in regards to mitigating risk for disease contraction in susceptible groups.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

References

    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Q Fever USA: CDC; 2013. [updated March, 2015]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/qfever/.
    1. Woldehiwet Z. Q fever (coxiellosis): epidemiology and pathogenesis. Res Vet Sci 2004;77:93–100. 10.1016/j.rvsc.2003.09.001 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Van den Brom R, Vellema P. Q fever outbreaks in small ruminants and people in the Netherlands. Small Ruminant Research. 2009;86(1):74–9.
    1. Mobarez AM, Amiri FB, Esmaeili S. Seroprevalence of Q fever among human and animal in Iran; a systematic review and meta-Analysis. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 2017;11(4):e0005521 10.1371/journal.pntd.0005521 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rousset E, Berri M, Durand B, Dufour P, Prigent M, Delcroix T, et al. Coxiella burnetii shedding routes and antibody response after outbreaks of Q fever-induced abortion in dairy goat herds. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 2009;75(2):428–33. 10.1128/AEM.00690-08 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Substances