Oyunchimeg O.^1*, Ariunsanaa B.¹, Batbaatar G.¹,

Ariunaa T.², Munkhtsetseg B.²,

Ye-In Kim.², Kijeong Kim.²
 

¹Health Sciences University of Mongolia

²Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 156-756, South Korea

Introduction

Q fever is a zoonotic diseases caused by the rickettsial organism Coxiella burnetii. The major reservoir for the C. burnetii causing human infection is well known to be contact with infected domestic animals such as cattle, sheep, cats, dogs and rabbits. We have conducted an epidemiological study in order to detect Q-fever antibodies among some people in a few soums in our country, to develop and experiment methodology of laboratory diagnostics, and to identify the incidence and prevalence of Q fever in selected regions.

Materials and methods

Samples were taken from people with a suspected infection and analyzed using ELISA and PCR tests. The 20 subjects, 4 males and 16 females, of this study were selected from among adult patients followed at the Hospitals of Omnogobi province and Hobsgol province between March 2006 and May 2008 on the basis of the symptoms. The estimated clinical duration of nonspecific complaints (fatigue 72%), feeling feverish (95%), joint aches or myalgia (84%), headache (73%), cough or sore throat (45%) was 2±4 years.  All patients had a history of living in close contact with dogs and domestic animals. Single blood samples, obtained from 2 healthy controls, 2 males were also examined.  

Results

This study has given an opportunity to differentiate Q fever from brucellosis and to provide a proper treatment and prevention from this disease.  According to geographical distribution, the incidence of combination of  Q fever and brucellosis was 16.9% in Burentogtoh soum, 6.8% in Hatgal soum, 1.7% in Shine-Ider soum in Huvsgul aimag; 3.4% in Hurmen, 8.5% in  Bayandalai,  20.3% in Tsogttsetsii, 1.7% in Dalanzadgad, 27.1% in Bulgan soums in Umnugobi aimag, 11.0% in Delgerkhaan and 1.7% in  Undurkhaan soums in Khentii aimag.

Conclusion

The survey results reveal that the highest occurence /27.1%/ of Q fever combined with brucellosis was observed among population of  Bulgan soum in Umnogobi aimag.