Q fever is a zoonosis of worldwide distribution with the exception of New Zealand. It is caused by an
intracellular bacterium, Coxiella burnetii. The disease often goes underdiagnosed because the main manifestation
of its acute form is a general self-limiting flu-like syndrome. The Dutch epidemics renewed attention to this
disease, which was less considered before. This review summarizes the description of C. burnetii (taxonomy,
intracellular cycle, and genome) and Q fever disease (description, diagnosis, epidemiology, and pathogenesis).
Finally, vaccination in humans and animals is also considered