At the beginning of the corona pandemic, a lot of Covid-19 occurred in the east of the province of North Brabant. This overlapped with the area where Q fever was high between 2007 and 201. Later in 2020, this difference was not or much less clear. There is no evidence that people who previously had Q fever became more seriously ill from the coronavirus. This is apparent from research by the RIVM.
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The spatial overlap during the first wave was striking, which is why RIVM investigated whether people who previously had Q fever were more likely to have corona and whether they became more seriously ill. RIVM looked at how often Covid-19 occurred at the start of the coronavirus outbreak in people who previously had Q fever and lived in the east of North Brabant. This number has been compared to the total number of people with Covid-19 in this area. It turns out that a positive test for the coronavirus during the first wave of the epidemic was more often found in people in the east of North Brabant who previously had Q fever.
Test policy during first wave of influence
Many people who previously had Q fever have one or more underlying conditions. Sometimes in combination with chronic Q fever or Q fever fatigue syndrome (QVS). As a result, they may have been tested more often for the coronavirus at the start of the epidemic. At that time, the testing capacity was still limited and people with underlying diseases and conditions were mainly tested. This happened because they are more likely to become seriously ill from Covid-19. By testing more often, the coronavirus has probably also been diagnosed more often. From June 2020, anyone with (mild) complaints could be tested. After that, RIVM no longer saw that a positive test occurred more often in people who previously had Q fever.
Not more seriously ill
RIVM has also looked into whether people who previously had Q fever become more seriously ill from the corona virus. No indications for this were found in this study. Even in patients who were so sick that they had to go to the hospital emergency room, COVID-19 did not appear to be more serious in people who had previously had Q fever.
The RIVM conducted the study in collaboration with Nivel, the GGD Hart voor Brabant and the Jeroen Bosch Hospital and Bernhoven Hospital.
By: National Care Guide
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