Mortality due to higher Q fever

Of all patients who died of chronic Q fever, 55% died less than One year after diagnosis [19659006] The Dutch fever epidemic in the Netherlands in 2007, the largest ever recorded 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 was is difficult to conduct research in this group. That's why all data is collected in one place. Researchers can better understand the clinical picture, follow patients for longer and seek the best treatment.

Patient data can be found in 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 9 patients who died of acute Q fever, the total number of patients who died of Q fever increased to 74 in 2016.

Numbers
Bianca Buijs, Medical Researcher and Internist in training at UMC Utrecht, the database was updated again 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 total of patients who died from Q fever is 95.