Q Fever Research Paper

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Q fever is a self-limiting disease generally diagnosed retrospectively complicating clinical assessment of pharmacological treatment. Infectious disease specialists suggest that antibiotics should be used in all cases of acute Q fever to prevent complications, on the other hand that treatment measure is solely recommended acute cases. Treatment initiation should be within 3 days of illness detection for antibiotic treatment to be most effective. The pharmaceutical antibiotic of choice for acute Q fever is tetracycline or doxycycline for a period of seven to fourteen days after diagnosis [Raoult 1993]. One study administered doxycycline 100 mg orally twice daily in comparison to erythromycin 500 mg orally every 6 hours for 10 days. Pre-treatment symptoms were similar in both trial groups, but fever was subsided …show more content…

In a human study, ofloxacin 600 mg orally once daily or pefloxacin 800 mg orally once for two weeks revealed great improvement in Q fever disease [Maurin and Raoult 1999]. Treatment options for Q fever hepatitic disease are similar to those for atypical pneumonia. Corticosteroids have been used successfully in a few reported cases with poor response to antibiotics alone. In Q fever endocarditis antibiotics are still the best course of treatment but the dosage and length of treatment has yet to be optimized since medicine cessation leads to disease relapse and uncontrolled Coxiella growth within the host [Salamand et al. 2002]. C burnetii infection can be cleaned with tetracycline however years after the course of treatment, the spores can still be found in cardiovascular valves. In vitro studies with cultured fibroblast suggest that the highest effective antibiotic combination to combat Q fever is quinolones and rifampicin. The combination of hydroxychloroquine and doxycycline has also been advocated as useful when for a period of three years [Calza et al.

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