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Q fever — or Coxiella burnetii infection — is manifested by fever, fatigue, chills, headache, and occasionally endocarditis. Humans can acquire the illness from exposure to infected animals, including domestic cats and sheep.
Between September and November 2014, the New York State Department of Health was notified after Q fever was diagnosed in five residents, based on symptoms and positive serologic testing for antibodies to phase I and II C. burnetii antigens. All five had traveled to Germany in May of that year to receive intramuscular inoculations of live cells from fetal sheep. Diagnosis was prompted when the German physician, after learning of C. burnetii infection in the sheep that were the source of cells, notified his patients. By t…