• 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)
