ABSTRACT
Q Fever Originally named ‘Q’ to denote query as the causative agent was unknown. Observed by Edward Holbrook Derrick (1898–1976) in 1937 in Queensland, Australia, in an outbreak of febrile illness amongst meat and cattle workers in Brisbane. The causative rickettsial organism, Coxiella burnetti, was identified by Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet (1899–1985). He was one of Australia’s greatest scientists who also developed the clonal theory of antibody production which earned him the Nobel Prize in 1960. The same strain of Coxiella was recovered from ticks during an outbreak in Montana by Herald Rea Cox (b 1907) and G.E. Davis in 1938. The organism was named for its discoverers, Cox and Burnet.
