Q fever is a disease caused by the bacteria Coxiella burnetii that infects some animals such as goats, sheep and cattle. Human infections are made by breathing in dust that has been contaminated by infected animal feces, urine, milk, and birth products. Typical symptoms are fever, chills, fatigue, and muscle pain etc. A small percentage of those who became infected with Q fever develops to chronic Q fever that requires antibiotic treatment. Q fever is classified as one of the Group IV mandatory notifiable infectious diseases in Korea.
In national infectious disease surveillance system, an annual number of reported patients of Q fever was less than 10 cases every year until 2014. Thereafter, it has been on increase from 27 cases in 2015 to 81 cases in 2016. Chronic cases accounted for 6(7.4%) among 81 cases in 2016. Annually the highest incidence was observed in November. 16% of patients was reported from high risk jobs such as farmers, livestock hygiene controller, veterinary drug delivery and meat by-product handler. we could not identify transmission routes in 54.3% of reported Q fever cases. Further efforts are needed to identify the transmission routes of Q fever.