More deaths due to Q fever

In 2007, the Q fever epidemic in the Netherlands, the largest in the world, resulted in a large number of patients with chronic Q fever. Data from these patients have since been stored in a national database. In 2016, 74 people died. Bianca Buijs, doctor-researcher at the UMC of Utrecht, updated the database last year and counts 95 deceased patients

During the fever epidemic Q of 2007-2010, an unprecedented number of patients in the Netherlands were infected with the Q-bacterial fever, Coxiella burnetii. Some of them have developed chronic Q fever, a rare disease, in which vessel walls and heart valves are infected. About half of these patients develop complications such as heart failure or rupture of the aorta (large artery of the body). The prognosis for these patients is generally unfavorable. 55% of patients who died from chronic Q fever died less than one year after diagnosis

Registration

Due to the limited number of patients with chronic Q fever, it is difficult to conduct research in this group. That's why all data is collected in one place. For example, researchers can better understand the clinical picture, follow patients in the longer term and look for the best treatment.

Patient data are transferred to the National Chronic Q Fever database, a collaboration between UMC Utrecht, the Netherlands. Radboudumc in Nijmegen and the Jeroen Bosch Hospital in Hertogenbosch. In 2016, this database contained data for 439 patients. During this year, it became apparent that 65 patients had died from the effects of chronic Q fever since the epidemic. With the 9 patients who died of acute Q fever, the total number of patients who died from Q fever rose to 74 in 2016.

Numbers

Bianca Buijs, researcher-physician and internist with training UMC Utrecht, the database was updated last year. Currently, she is recording 519 patients with chronic Q fever. The increase is almost entirely due to patients diagnosed with chronic Q fever after 2016. By 2018, 86 patients had died from chronic Q fever, 21 more than in 2016. The number The total number of patients who died from Q fever is 95.