Q Fever in Children

• Objective. —To describe clinical profiles of Q fever in children. Design. —Retrospective study. Setting. —Tertiary teaching hospital. Participants. —Thirteen children aged 2 to 14 years, with a mean±SD age of 9.6±3.6 years. Selection Procedures. —Review of the medical records of all children with Q fever admitted from 1986 to 1990. The diagnosis was made by detection of phase II antibodies to Coxiella burnetii by the complement fixation test. Measurements/Main Results. —Clinical profiles consisted of a self-limited illness characterized by high fever (mean±SD, 39.9°C±0.66°C of 5 to 10 days' duration (mean±SD, 7.4±1.6 days), constitutional symptoms, and mild liver dysfunction. Eleven patients had gastrointestinal manifestations (vomiting and/or abdominal pain). Respiratory symptoms were not prominent. Most patients had normal or low white blood cell counts, and seven showed a relative increase of band forms. Their erythrocyte sedimentation rates ranged from 8 to 23 mm/h. All patients did well without specific therapy for C burnetii. Conclusion. —In children with the symptoms described above, tests to detect antibodies to C burnetii should be performed. ( AJDC . 1993;147:300-302)