Isolation ofCoxiella burnetiiin patients with nonspecific febrile illness in South Korea

초록

Background The number of human Q fever cases in South Korea has been rapidly increasing since 2015. We report the first isolation ofCoxiella burnetiiin Korea in two patients who initially presented with non-specific febrile illness and were finally diagnosed with acute Q fever in South Korea. Case presentation Two adult patients with fever had serologic tests againstC. burnetiiinitially negative, and polymerase chain reaction against 16S rRNA using whole blood was also negative. After bacterial amplification ofC. burnetiiin immune-depressed mice, we isolatedC. burnetiifrom patients with acute Q fever. The isolates KZQ2 and KZQ3 were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction, nucleotide sequence analysis, and morphologic observation using a transmission electron microscope. Conclusions These results can help us understand the clinical and epidemiologic features of Q fever in South Korea.

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