Potential Danger of Q Fever in a University Hospital Environment

In late 1968, a caretaker of animals at the University of California, San Francisco, developed a pneumonitis, which was diagnosed as Q fever when a complement-fixation test showed a rise in titer from ^:10 to 1:1,280. A year later a research worker on the same campus developed hepatitis, with fever and myalgias, which his physician thought was atypical of viral hepatitis. When serologic tests were performed, this patient had a complement-fixation titer for Q fever of 1:128; he improved dramatically when therapy with tetracycline was initiated. Because of these two cases of Q fever, the one proven and the other presumptive, a serologic survey was made in December, 1969 of all personnel at the medical center who had contact with sheep and goats in the course of their work. This paper presents the serologic results together with an analysis of the study population.