Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2020 | Polymerase Chain Reaction | Case report
Isolation of Coxiella burnetii in patients with nonspecific febrile illness in South Korea
Authors:
Seung Hun Lee, Jae Hoon Lee, Sungdo Park, Hae Kyung Lee, Seon Do Hwang, Hye Won Jeong, Jung Yeon Heo, Yeong Seon Lee
Published in:
BMC Infectious Diseases
|
Issue 1/2020
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Abstract
Background
The number of human Q fever cases in South Korea has been rapidly increasing since 2015. We report the first isolation of Coxiella burnetii in 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 against C. burnetii initially negative, and polymerase chain reaction against 16S rRNA using whole blood was also negative. After bacterial amplification of C. burnetii in immune-depressed mice, we isolated C. burnetii from 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.