Revisiting the early diagnosis of Q fever (literature review)

Based on literature data, the review presents current information on a wide range of clinical manifestations of Q fever, as well as on laboratory methods for diagnosing the disease. Q fever is a zoonotic disease with a variety of transmission routes of its pathogen – Coxiella burnetii. The main carriers of coxiellas are ixodid ticks; in anthropogenic foci their hosts are domestic and livestock animals. The Q fever foci in the Novosibirsk region were found back in the 90s of the last century, however, laboratory diagnostics was not performed over the past two decades. Due to the polymorphism of clinical symptoms, the disease has no pathognomonic signs. The main manifestations of acute Q fever are fever, myalgias, pneumonia. Confirmation of the diagnosis is possible only if genetic and serological markers of the causative agent Coxiella burnetii are identified, which makes it possible to differentiate Q fever from other infections and prescribe appropriate therapy in a timely manner.