ADVANCES IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF COXIELLA-BURNETII INFECTION IN JAPAN

Q fever is a zoonotic disease caused by a rickettsia Coxiella burnetii . Since its first description in 1937, the disease has been found to b e present in most countries of the world. Serological evidences of Q f ever in humans and coxiellosis in animals were reported in Japan in th e 1950s, however, systematic studies of the disease did not begin unti l the report of isolation of C. burnetii from an acute Q fever patient in 1989. In addition to the extensive information about epidemiology of the disease, the understanding of Japanese isolates of C. burnetii is increasing rapidly in recent years. In this review, the epidemiolog y of the disease along with some characteristics of isolates of C. bur netii in Japan is summarized in five sections, i.e., coxiellosis, Q fe ver, modes of spread of the infection, laboratory diagnosis of the inf ection and some characteristics of Japanese isolates. This review incl udes some recent, unpublished data from our and other groups.