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Yannis Tselentis, Achilleas Gikas, Diamantis Kofteridis, Eustathios Kyriakakis, Niki Lydataki, Demosthenes Bouros, Nikolaos Tsaparas, Q Fever in the Greek Island of Crete: Epidemiologic, Clinical, and Therapeutic Data from 98 Cases, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 20, Issue 5, May 1995, Pages 1311–1316, https://doi.org/10.1093/clinids/20.5.1311
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Abstract
A retrospective study was undertaken in Crete, Greece, to investigate the epidemiologic, clinical, and therapeutic aspects of Q fever. Over a period of 5 years (1989–1993), 1,298 patients were examined and 98 cases were identified. Individuals who were aged 20–29 years and 30–39 years appeared to have an increased risk of infection. Contact with animals was found to be a major risk factor for acquisition of Q fever. The predominant clinical manifestations of the infection were fever (91.7% of patients) and respiratory disease (88.5%), whereas hepatitis was the dominant feature in only a minority (7.1%) of patients. Chest radiographs frequently revealed pulmonary interstitial changes (36.4% of patients) and alveolar changes (34.4%). Abnormal echocardiographic findings were also observed. There was no difference in the duration of fever whether the patient received therapy with tetracycline or erythromycin, a finding that may be explained by the delay in initiating tetracycline therapy.
