As etiological investigation in Q fever improved, its geographical distribution has become clear, and the presence of this disease has been proved almost all over the world. In Japan also, since 1951, when it was required to examine camels imported on Q fever, many investigators in the field of rickettsiology have got interested in this disease, and so, Fukuzumi and Saito, Matsubayashi, Kitaoka and many other workers published reviews on Q fever in succession. On the other hand, experimental studies are being carried out in many laboratories. The crucial proof of existence of Q fever in Japan is of course the isolation of
Coxiella burnetii, and there has not been yet reported its occurrence or prevalence but laboratory infection by Tazaka and Tameda and by Kitaoka in our own laboratory, then we will be able to only guess it by serological survey. Such a survey, however, can not be significant until it is done widely in both human beings and domestic animals, compared with isolation of causative agent in infected districts, as Irons, Murphy and Wolfe reported in the United States of America.
The symptoms of Q fever are so complicated that it can hardly be differenciated from other infectious diseases as described by Feinstein, Yensen and Marks. Especially in Japan, where its existence can not be decided at the present moment, Q fever may possibly be included in atypical pneumonia or other acute respiratory diseases. As reported by Lennette, Dean, Akinanti, Clark, Winn and Holmes, Lennette and Welsh and Clark, Lennette and Romer,
Coxiella burnetii, however, is prevailable among so common domestic animals and its resistance is so much great that this agent will probably give rise to a widespread infection according to transfer of live-stock.
At any rate, it has become a subject of discussion, unexpectedly as mentioned previously, whether or not Q fever exists in Japan. Survey should be carried cut as widely as possible in both human beings and animals. In response to the survey of live-stock started by the Animal Hygiene Experimental Laboratory, Agriculture and Forest Ministry, we collected serum samples of people who had chance to come in contact with live-stock throughout the country, and undertook the serological test on those samples.
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