LEPTOSPIROSIS: CAUSE, SYMPTOMS,TREATMENT

 

            Leptospira are commonly known as spirochete. They are actively motile. They possess both gram-negative and gram-positive characteristics. Due to poor staining, can only visible on dark field microscope. They are beta-hemolytic in nature.

           Leptospira organisms are very thin, tightly coiled; obligate aerobic spirochetes characterized by a unique flexuous type of motility. The genus is divided into two species:

ü                 *The pathogenic leptospires L interrogans

ü                 *Free-living leptospire  L biflexa(non-pathogenic)

Wild and domestic animals are the illness's primary hosts, and the disease is a major cause of economic loss in the meat and dairy industries. L biflexa serotypes exist as free-living organisms in water and soil, and humans are unwitting carriers for this disseminated disease, which ranges in severity from asymptomatic to lethal.

LEPTOSPIROSIS:

    LEPTOSPIROSIS is the name for a leptospira infection. Rodents are the major reservoir because, once infected, they shed the germs for the rest of their lives. Humans become infected by ingesting Leptospira-contaminated water. Leptospires can also enter the body through abrasions on the skin. There is a 6- to 8-day incubation period. Leptospires enters the bloodstream and multiplies for one week. Then it leaves the bloodstream and enters the liver, kidney, spleen, and meninges. In the later phases, it is eliminated primarily in the urine.

WEIL’S DISEASE:

It is the severe form of leptospirosis. It can cause fever, conjunctivitis, albuminurea, jaundice and hemorrhage. It’s implicated group is L.icterrohaemorrhagiae.

LIFE CYCLE:

                 

                               

CAUSES:

Many animals carry the organism, which resides in their kidneys. Through their urine, it ends up in the soil and water. The germ can enter your body through holes in your skin, such as scrapes, open wounds, or dry patches, if you're near soil or water where an infected animal has peed. It can also get into your body through your mouth, nose, or genitals. It's difficult to contract it from another person, yet it can be transmitted through sex or nursing.

If you spend a lot of time amid animals or in the outdoors, you're at concern.            

SYMPTOMS:

Leptospirosis can cause a variety of symptoms in humans, including 

• High fever.
• Headache.
• Chills.
• Muscle pain.
• Vomiting.
• Jaundice is a type of jaundice that occurs (yellow skin and eyes)
• Eyes that are bright red.
• Pain in the abdomen.

LABORATORY DIAGNOSIS:

Specimen should be taken from blood in case of initial stage but in case of later stage specimens are taken from urine. Serological tests like screening test & serotype specific test are useful method of diagnosis.

TREATMENT:

Penicillin, Tetracycline and Erythromycin are useful drugs in this case. There is no vaccine available till now. Natural immunity develops after infection with corresponding serotype.