Leptospirosis

Why in news?

Cases of Dengue and Leptospirosis rises on the urban areas as a sesonal flu.

About

• Leptospirosis, also known as “rat fever”, is arare bacterial infectionthat affects people and animals.
• The disease iscaused by abacterium called Leptospira interrogans, orLeptospira.

Infection

Thecarriersof the diseasecan be either wild or domestic animals, including rodents, cattle, pigs, and dogs.

Signs and symptoms

• It generallytakes 2-30 days to get sickafter having contact with the bacteria. Leptospirosis mayoccur in two phases.
• In thefirst phase,people may havefever, chills, headache,muscle aches, vomiting, ordiarrhea. The person mayfeel better for a whilebutbecome ill again.
• Some people may suffer a moresevere second phasewithkidney or liver failure, orinflammationof the membranearound the brain and spinal cord(meningitis).

Acute Form

• Weil's disease, the acute, severe form of leptospirosis, causes the infected individual to become jaundiced (skin and eyes become yellow), develop kidney failure, and bleed.
• Bleeding from the lungs associated with leptospirosis is known as severe pulmonary haemorrhage syndrome.

Transmission

Infected animals spreadthebacteria through their urine (pee).They may continue to urinate the bacteria into the environment for several months or years.

Thebacteriacan survive in contaminated water or soil for weeks to months

It isnot spread from person to person,exceptin veryrare cases.

It is mostcommon in tropical areasand warmer climateswith lots of rainfalleach year.

Treatment

• Treatment, when infected, is with antibiotics such asdoxycycline, penicillin, or ceftriaxone.
• The lepto vaccination provides protection against leptospirosis.