Anyone living in country Australia should consider being vaccinated against Q fever, according to researchers.

The recommendation was made on the basis of their study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia which showed that living in a rural area for more than three months was associated with an increased risk of contracting Q fever even if there was little contact with farm animals, the traditional reservoir of the infection.

In fact, the risk among country dwellers was 2.5 times higher than among people who had never lived rurally, according to the study which looked for evidence of past infection among 2740 blood donors in Queensland and NSW.