Leptospirosis: Lethal yet detectible

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

FIRST described by Adolf Weil in 1886 as an acute infectious disease with spleen enlargement, jaundice and kidney problems as its signs and symptoms, leptospirosis was once thought to be exclusively contracted from rats alone.

According to Dr. Enrique Ona, the head of the health department, leptospirosis is an infection commonly transmitted to humans from water that has been contaminated by animal urine, and comes in contact with lesions in the skin, eyes, or with the mucous membranes.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

Medical experts believe that rats, mice, moles and a wide range of other mammals including dogs, deer, rabbits, hedgehogs, cows, sheep, raccoons, possums, skunks and certain marine mammals are able to carry and transmit the disease.

Epidemiologists believe that there is a direct correlation between the amount of rainfall and the incidence of leptospirosis, making it seasonal in temperate climates and year-round in tropical climates such as in the Philippines.
Records culled from the Department of Health (DOH) states that from January to May this year, there have been 454 reported cases of leptospirosis.

This figure presents 74.6 percent higher compared to the cases reported on the same period last year.

In 2009, several typhoons came after another, which caused a leptospirosis outbreak in the country. The health department reported 1,887 cases of leptospirosis that resulted to 138 deaths.

“Because mild leptospirosis typically causes vague, flu-like symptoms, many infections probably go unreported,” the Merck Manual of Medical Information explains.

Studies also support that leptospirosis causes mild disease in about 90 percent of infected people, whereas 10 percent have severe, potentially fatal, disease that affects many organs.

According to Pathologists, there are two phases of leptospirosis. The first is the flu-like stage that starts two to 20 days after infection with fever, headache, severe muscle aches and chills as its manifestations.
The fever clears for a few days, marking the beginning of the second phase.

“During the second phase,” pathologists inform, “the body’s immune reaction against the bacteria causes inflammation, producing many symptoms. The fever returns, and there is often inflammation of the tissues covering the brain (meningitis), causing a stiff neck, headache, and sometimes stupor and coma.

Experts warn that in severe form of the infection, people may also have inflammation of the liver, kidneys and lungs, resulting in jaundice, kidney failure and bloody cough.

Sometimes, the heart is inflamed, causing palpitations and dangerously low blood pressure (hypovolemic shock).
On the brighter side, antibiotics are readily available to combat leptospirosis.

As a matter-of-fact, Dr. John P. Cunha of MedicineNet.com reported that a vaccine for leptospirosis is available and used in some countries in Europe and Asia.

It must be emphasized though that only physicians can diagnose leptosipirosis by means of blood testing. Traditionally, this is done by identifying the bacterium Leptospira in cultures of blood, urine, or cerebrospinal fluid samples or, more commonly, by detecting antibodies against the bacteria in the blood. The entire process may take hours or even days depending on the case and availability of technology.

With the advent of modern-day science, medical devices like rapid immunochromatographic tests, or simply put “rapid tests,” can readily be substituted to laboratory procedures that are lengthy in preparations and tardy in results.

Rapid tests are like pregnancy test kits that can be bought in pharmacies. It works by detecting a specific antigen which would normally be present in an infected individual thus confirming the diagnosis of a disease.

One rapid test that exists to detect leptospirosis is Leptocheck.

Several studies have found it to be 100 percent sensitive and specific to Leptospira antibodies, which can confirm the diagnosis of leptospirosis and its results, are at par with the sophisticated laboratory testing procedures like ELISA.

According to Zephyr, the manufacturer of Leptocheck, the latter works by getting a drop of serum or whole blood of the patient to the sample port. With the aid of a running buffer, results are readily available in 15 minutes.

And just like a pregnancy kit, if two color band or “sticks” appears at the control window, the result is read positive. Otherwise, the patient is negative for leptospirosis.

It must be underscored that although anybody can do rapid testing, only physicians can confirm the diagnosis.

But thanks to innovations in medical science, leptospirosis can be detected rapidly with accuracy and ease.

So ask your doctors about rapid tests to learn more of this latest medical innovation.

(Comments may be sent to pjvesagas@yahoo.ca)