Outbreak of rare disease in the Netherlands

[Simple Living]

I heard this story on NPR/PRI Last evening.

http://www.theworld.org/2010/03/25/outbreak-of-rare-disease-in-the-netherlands/

Has anyone else had any dealings with this? Any of our posters from the Netherlands and able to give us a first hand rundown? It appears that fear and not reason are making the decisions there. Share your thoughts.

Gordon

[CharlyBonifaz]

not so new; the Netherlands have been battling it for 3 years now without much success; The “new” vaccine has not been approved yet and will not prevent shedding of the bacteria after birth, but will lower the numbers of germs shed considerably
Problem is, the bacteria will survive in soil for years (decades)
Startling is, that so many people, quite a number of them even without any contact to agriculture, have become infected, which puts a lot of pressure on scientists to find a quick solution; yes, the increase in goatfarms (by numbers per se and by animals) seems to be part of the problem
The article reflects the situation well researched…..

As an afterthought: many people involved with cattle/sheep/goats come up unknowingly with positive titers and have somewhere in their life made it through a coxiella-infection assuming they had the flu

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/content/in-the-news/q-fever-netherlands.aspx

[Simple Living]

The CDC article/publication was an interesting read. It does make me wonder of the people here in the states raising goats/sheep/cattle, are we having the same type of outbreak here? There are not a lot of large livestock operations near where I live. But there are a dozen or so “Mega Dairys” within 30-40miles. Is this an issue in the dairy cattle as well?

[CharlyBonifaz]

probably; I’m sure many farmers and vets over here acquire their titers during calvings and won’t realise they may have overcome an infection with coxiella unless by chance cows start to abort and the reason is hunted down
usually lay people get infected only through events with sheep/goats
“Mega Dairys” put a lot of energy into prevention of diseases, supposedly that covers this disease as well…..
http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_information/dissemination/echi/docs/Qfever_en.pdf
the number of cases in the US is at the end of this list (they don’t tell you how many of them are soldiers that brought it back from Irak or Afganistan)

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