Q Fever: An Emerging Public Health Concern in Iran

Q fever is a zoonotic disease considered as an emerging or re-emerging disease in many countries. It is caused by Coxiella burnetii that are highly resistant to the environment. The most common reservoirs of the diseases are livestock. In this study, all studies carried out on Q fever in Iran were reviewed, in order to have a better understanding of the epidemiological features of the disease in this country. All published documents were systematically searched to find the related studies between the years 1937 and 2012. The collected studies were then classified based on the study group. In this review 29 published papers or reports were found, which included 12 studies on animals and birds, 1 on foetuses, 4 on ticks, 4 on milk and 14 on humans. The existence of the Q fever pathogen has been confirmed in different molecular and serological studies among different animals (including sheep, cattle, goats, horses, camels, wild rodents and wild pigeons) and their productions in Iran. Also, there are few seroepidemiological studies on the presence of human Q fever in Iran that most of them confirmed this issue. According to this study, Iran can be considered as an endemic focus of Q fever. As the presence of C. burnetii or its antibody has been reported among different animals in Iran, the disease can be transmitted to humans and so it can be considered as a public health problem in Iran.