Q fever claims 6 lives in Netherlands
Source: Agencies |
December 11, 2009, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE Dutch government said yesterday it will vaccinate all goats and sheep in the country against Q fever and kill many pregnant goats to rein in an outbreak that has caused the deaths of six people this year.
Q fever is a rare bacterial disease that can't be spread between people and usually causes only flu-like symptoms.
About 2,300 people contracted Q fever in the country this year, up from 1,000 last year and 168 in 2007.
Many animals can carry the bacteria, but contact with infected goats is believed to be the main source of human infections.
The ministry yesterday said it planned to slaughter all pregnant infected goats, which carry the bacteria in high concentrations.
It was not immediately clear how many goats will be killed. Most humans are infected between February and May, when goats and sheep give birth.
"There's nowhere external to turn to for expert advice, because it's a unique situation," said ministry spokesman Thijs van Son.
Q fever infections usually occur in a cluster in one year and then peter out the next. But the Dutch outbreak has been growing and spreading out over agricultural areas for three years despite increasingly strong measures to contain it. That hasn't happened anywhere before, Van Son said.
He said that so far the outbreak is not known to have spread to neighboring Germany or Belgium.
Van Son said one theory as to why the outbreak has been so severe in the Netherlands is the large numbers of animals per farm, combined with the density of the Dutch human population, which is one of the highest in the world. There are around 1.2 million sheep and 400,000 goats on 350 farms in the Netherlands, a country of 16 million people.
The Dutch health ministry says 11 people have died from the diseases since 2007. All are believed to have had other underlying medical problems.
Q fever is a rare bacterial disease that can't be spread between people and usually causes only flu-like symptoms.
About 2,300 people contracted Q fever in the country this year, up from 1,000 last year and 168 in 2007.
Many animals can carry the bacteria, but contact with infected goats is believed to be the main source of human infections.
The ministry yesterday said it planned to slaughter all pregnant infected goats, which carry the bacteria in high concentrations.
It was not immediately clear how many goats will be killed. Most humans are infected between February and May, when goats and sheep give birth.
"There's nowhere external to turn to for expert advice, because it's a unique situation," said ministry spokesman Thijs van Son.
Q fever infections usually occur in a cluster in one year and then peter out the next. But the Dutch outbreak has been growing and spreading out over agricultural areas for three years despite increasingly strong measures to contain it. That hasn't happened anywhere before, Van Son said.
He said that so far the outbreak is not known to have spread to neighboring Germany or Belgium.
Van Son said one theory as to why the outbreak has been so severe in the Netherlands is the large numbers of animals per farm, combined with the density of the Dutch human population, which is one of the highest in the world. There are around 1.2 million sheep and 400,000 goats on 350 farms in the Netherlands, a country of 16 million people.
The Dutch health ministry says 11 people have died from the diseases since 2007. All are believed to have had other underlying medical problems.
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