Risk of chronic Q fever in patients with cardiac valvulopathy, seven years after a large epidemic in the Netherlands.

Background From 2007 through 2010, a large epidemic of acute Q fever occurred in the Netherlands. Patients with cardiac valvulopathy are at high risk to develop chronic Q fever after an acute infection. This patient group was not routinely screened, so it is unknown whether all their chronic infections were diagnosed. This study aims to investigate how many chronic Q fever patients can be identified by routinely screening patients with valvulopathy and to establish whether the policy of not screening should be changed. Methods In a cross-sectional study (2016-2017) in a hospital at the epicent... Mehr ...