On Saturday, Feb 22, 2003, at 10:52 Australia/Perth, Arly Helm wrote:

> I haven't researched this particular disease, so my comments are
> generic:
>
> Wouldn't the safest and most conservative course of action to take on
> behalf of the baby be to do a blood draw at birth, test for the virus
> itself

It's a bacterium, Coxiella burnetii.

> (rather than performing an antibody test),

As far as I know, there is no useful test for the presence of Coxiella
bacteria, and it's particularly difficult to grow in culture. Diagnosis
rests on the serologic detection of antibodies. Sometimes there are
histologic findings in liver or bone marrow biopsy also, but the
changes are non-specific. So there's no simple answer to this question,
unfortunately.

Lara

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