Querying the Register

The main purpose of the Register is to find out the Q fever immune status of a person. To do this, you need the four pieces of information to identify an individual:

• Their Q Fever Register Number
• Their given name
• Their family name
• Their date of birth

Finding a Person's Q Fever Register Number

A person's Q Fever Register Number acts like a key to the information on the Register. Without this number, you can't access the information. If you want to access the information, you have to ask the person for their Register Number. When a person gives you their number, they are consenting to you accessing the information.

IMPORTANT: Just like a real key, the system is no longer secure if the number falls into the wrong hands. You should therefore treat a person's Q Fever Register Number as private information, and you must not keep a paper or electronic copy of anybody's number, nor reveal their number to anybody else.

Everybody who is entered onto the Register is issued with a Q Fever Register card, which includes their status (at the time of issue) and their Register Number. If a person has their Q Fever Register card, they can tell you their number from the card.

If a person doesn't have their card on them, and can't remember their number, you should ask them to phone the Q Fever Register Help-Line (1300 QFEVER) to find out what their number is. Once they identify themselves with their secret question and answer, they will be told their number, which they can then give to you. You may not request a person's number on their behalf - staff of the Register will only provide Q Fever Register Numbers directly to the person concerned.

Finding a Person's Status

To find a person's status, log on to the Web site, and select Find a person's Q Fever Immune Status from the main menu. You will then be asked to type in the following details:

• Q Fever Register Number
• Given name: This may not be the first name in some cultures
• Family name: This may not be the last name in some cultures
• Date of birth

If all the details are correct, you will be shown the person's status and the details held in the Register.

If all the details do not match exactly, you will not be shown any information. If there is a near match (eg a minor spelling mistake, but the right date of birth, or else the wrong Register Number), a list of people with similar names will be shown, to help you correct the mistake. Go back and fix any problems and try again. If there is still a problem, you may ask for the person's Q Fever Card, which includes their name and date of birth exactly as it appears on the Register.

The Q Fever Status Report contains the following information:

• Full name
• Date of birth
• Q fever status. This may be:
  • Vaccinated,
  • Confirmed Exposure (where there has been a positive test result but no vaccination recorded),
  • Tested Negative (where there has only been negative test results), or Incomplete Record (where a Register entry exists, but no vaccination or test results are present).

To print a hard copy of the report for the files, click the Print button at the bottom of the page.

Batch Queries

It is possible to do a batch query, in the same way as batch data submissions described above. This means that the details for any number of people can be entered into a spreadsheet while not connected to the Internet, and their details can be queried all at the same time. To do a batch query:

1. If you don't already have it, download the Qfever.xls spreadsheet (as described under Batch Data Submission).
2. Open it, and go to the Query page
3. Enter the details in the appropriate columns.
4. Log on to the Web site.
5. Select Batch Query from the main menu.
6. On the spreadsheet, highlight all the data including the top line, and copy it.
7. Paste the data into the empty text box on the Web site. (Don't worry if the column formatting looks messy).
8. Click Send Data.
9. A report with the latest vaccination and testing results, as well as the Q fever Status will be presented, but only for those people whose details matched perfectly.
10. You can download a copy of the report in MS Excel format by clicking the Download button. This can then be printed out for the file.

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