Under control. After explosive growth in 08 and 09, cases of Q fever (shown per week) have reported dropped sharply in 2010.
Frederika Dijkstra (RIVM / CIb / EPI)
AMSTERDAM -The Dutch government failed to mount a robust response to face the worst epidemic of Q fever in the world, a disease transmitted by animals from the farm to the man, according to a group of experts presented its report on Monday. More than 4,000 people have fallen ill since the beginning of the epidemic in 07, and 14 have died.
Q fever, caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetii , is primarily an infection of cattle, goats and sheep. It sickens humans occasionally, usually after they breathe in air contaminated with the bacteria, which are present in the billions in the amniotic fluid and placenta of infected females and in aborted fetuses. While most people have little or no symptoms, others develop fever, pneumonia, severe headache, coughing, muscle and joint pain, or fatigue.
During the early years of the epidemic, which earned the Netherlands a warning Travel the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the government seemed to have a wait and see, the panel said, chaired by agricultural economist Gert van Dijk of the Nyenrode Business University. It took too long, for example, to establish that the goat farms were the main source of the epidemic and to adopt measures to contain the risk. Alarmed responsible for regional public health in North Brabant, the most affected province, struggled to be heard by the national government in The Hague, according to the report, which is in Dutch.
Accordingly, in 08, in which more than 00 people became ill, was a year"lost"; only in 09, when the crisis had degenerated also was a robust monitoring program launched, including mandatory vaccination of goats and sheep and slaughter of 62,500 pregnant animals on infected farms.
A cause of the delays, the report said, was that the issue was handled by two departments are not always communicate well. The Ministry of Agriculture feared that aggressive control measures, if backed by solid science, lead to prosecution of farmers; the Ministry of Health did not push hard enough, and did not have formal powers to ensure that public health has prevailed. In future outbreaks of zoonoses, diseases transmitted from animals to humans, the health ministry should have the advantage, said the panel.
Numbers released earlier this month by the National Institute of Public Health and the issue of the environment that the control strategy has paid off: So far, only 382 people became ill with Q fever in 2010, against over 2,300 in 09.
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