European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

CLINICO-SEROLOGICAL PREVALENCE OF LEPTOSPIROSIS IN AND AROUND PUDUCHERRY

Dhandapany Senthil Pragash*, Latha Ragunathan, Vijaya Rayapu, Sakthidasan

ABSTRACT

Background: Leptospirosis is a zoonotic infection caused by the Spirochete of the genus Leptospira. It affects humans worldwide, in both urban and rural areas and in temperate and tropical climates. There has long been under-reporting of these cases in India, mainly due to non-availability of diagnostic methods. Methods: Our study was mainly aimed at detection of leptospirosis along with clinical correlation. We carried out a prospective study in clinically suspected patients with leptospirosis over a period of 2 years. A total of 202 patients with clinical suspicion of Leptospirosis were categorized by age, sex, occupation and important clinical manifestations. Results: Out of the 202 cases screened, 81 (40.1%) were positive by dark field microscopy (DFM) and 76 (37.62%) by microscopic agglutination test (MAT). The disease showed peak during rainy season. 76 positive cases by MAT, gold standard method, were followed up for epidemiological pattern, clinical features and laboratory parameters. Mean age of patients was 32.6 years (4 years to 70years) and males (56.58 %) were predominantly affected than females (43.42 %). The most common symptom observed in this study was fever (100%), myalgia (91%), headache (87%), conjunctival suffusion (50%), jaundice (39%) and oliguria (37%) and laboratory parameters as follows: raised ESR (100%), followed by abnormal LFT (72 %) and thrombocytopenia (54%). Conclusion: We conclude that, there was a positive correlation between clinical features and laboratory diagnosis. So patient can be started on empirical therapy using clinical features and later confirmed with laboratory diagnosis.

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