- Title
- A windy day in a sheep saleyard: an outbreak of Q fever in rural South Australia
- Creator
- O'Connor, B. A.; Tribe, I. G.; Givney, R.
- Relation
- Epidemiology and Infection Vol. 143, Issue 2, p. 391-398
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0950268814001083
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- In December 2004, the Department of Human Services investigated an outbreak of Q fever in South Australia. A case-control study tested an association between attending a local saleyard and human illness. A case was defined as a person with clinical illness and evidence of seroconversion or high phase II IgM. Controls were selected from a database of community controls matched on sex, age group and postcode. Matched analysis of the first 15 cases with 45 controls indicated that contracting Q fever was associated with attending the saleyard on one particular day (adjusted odds ratio 15.3, 95% confidence interval 1.7-undefined, P = 0.014). Saleyard conditions were windy and conducive for airborne dispersal of contaminated particles. In total, 25 cases were detected. Of these, 22 cases had attended a local saleyard on the same day. This outbreak suggests cases were probably infected by a single exposure at a saleyard from infected sheep and dust. The investigation resulted in an increase in the local uptake of Q fever vaccination and extension of the Australian national vaccination programme.
- Subject
- outbreaks; Q fever; zoonoses; Australia
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1323371
- Identifier
- uon:24796
- Identifier
- ISSN:0950-2688
- Language
- eng
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