The Infectious Dose of Coxiella burnetii (Q Fever)

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hubbard AE ; Jones RM ; Nicas M ; Reingold AL
• Description:
  Quantitative estimation of an individual's risk of infection due to airborne pathogens requires knowledge of the pathogen's infectious dose, in addition to estimates of the pathogen's airborne concentration and the person's exposure duration. Based on our review of the published literature on Q fever, we conclude that the infectious dose of Coxiella burnetii is likely one rickettsia, and that the probability of a single organism initiating infection is approximately 0.9. Findings in experiments exposing guinea pigs to C. burnetii via intraperitoneal injection and inhalation of respirable aerosols firmly support a "one-hit" Poisson model of infection. Findings in experiments exposing human subjects to C. burnetii via inhalation of respirable aerosols fail to provide convincing evidence that the one-hit Poisson model applies to human infection; however, inference from the human studies is limited by the small numbers of subjects and lack of quantification of the exposure concentrations. Given the presence of C. burnetii in sputum, the prevalence of cough in Q fever patients, and the ability of the pathogen to initiate infection via the respiratory tract, we believe that person-to-person transmission of C. burnetii via inhalation of respiratory aerosol is possible. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aerosols Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Bacterial Infections Environmental Exposure Environmental Health Environmental Monitoring Environmental Pollution Immune System Inhalation Exposure Occupational Health Particulate Matter Personal Protective Equipment Public Health Respiratory System Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety

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• Keywords:
  Aerosol-particles Air-contamination Airborne-particles Bacterial-infections Biological-effects Biological-function Cell-biology Cellular-reactions Environmental-exposure Environmental-hazards Environmental-health Exposure-assessment Exposure-levels Exposure-methods Immune-reaction Immune-system Inhalants Inhalation-studies Pathogenesis Pathogenicity Pathogens Physiological-effects Physiological-factors Physiological-response Protective-measures Public-health Quantitative-analysis Risk-analysis Risk-factors Safety-practices Statistical-analysis Surface-properties

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• ISSN:
  1535-6760
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  32-41
• Volume:
  11
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037358
• Citation:
  Appl Biosafety 2006 Mar; 11(1):32-41
• Contact Point Address:
  Rachael M. Jones, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Performing Organization:
  University of California, Berkeley
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Applied Biosafety
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:044716f591d9e8f2f06ec53105568adb60404c8d8bebbe8f2c168053484f262634d4425dc60d00986de4978345c5d698b717243692b4dba32e639bc4da9e10da
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/188459/cdc_188459_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 408.95 KB ]