• Zary Nokhodian, Awat Feizi, Behrooz Ataei, Shervin Ghaffari Hoseini, and Ehsan Mostafavi.
• Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
• J Res Med Sci. 2017 Jan 1; 22: 121.

BackgroundQ fever is endemic in Iran, thus, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on epidemiology of Coxiella burnetii among humans and animals in Iran.Materials And MethodsA systematic search was performed to identify all articles reporting C. burnetii prevalence in Iranian humans or animals, published from January 2000 to January 2015. Data from articles were extracted, and a pooled estimate of prevalence with corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated using random effect method.ResultsIn this review, 27 papers were identified. The pooled seroprevalence of Q fever in animals was 27% (CI 95%: 23%-32%). The prevalence was 33% (CI 95%: 22%-45%) in goats, 27% (CI 95%: 21%-32%) in sheep, and 17% (CI 95%: 5%-28%) in cattle. The bacterial DNA was detected in 5% (95% CI: 3%-9%) of milk samples, and it was higher in cattle (10%; 95% CI: 6%-16%) than sheep (2%; 95% CI: 0-7%) and goats (4%; 95% CI: 0-12%).ConclusionC. burnetii DNA or its antibody has been frequently detected among ruminants. Since these animals can transmit the infection to humans, Q fever could be a potential health problem in Iran.

5 keywords...

hide…