European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Leptospirosis is an emerging zoonoses caused by pathogenic Leptospira sps. It causes acute febrile illness in tropical regions. Usually the infection is underdiagnosed due to lack of awareness, varied clinical spectrum of diseases and difficult diagnostic methods. The present study aimed to explore the seroprevalence and clinical features of leptospirosis in patients presenting with an acute febrile illness. This was a cross sectional study undertaken at the microbiology department over a 12-month period. That included 597 people with more than 7 days with acute febrile illness. Those patients were tested using the IgM ELISA for leptospirosis. Of these 597 patients, 18.25% were seropositive for anti‑leptospira‑specific immunoglobulin (IgM) antibodies. Preponderance of male (n=77) was observed compared to females (n=32).Majority of leptospirosis patients were belonged to occupation fishing and related activities 37 (33.94%) followed by agriculture workers 21(19.27%).Mayalgia(92.67%), Jaundice(83.49%) and headache were found to be the common clinical presentations. Coinfection was observed in 15.60% of patients.In our study, the seroprevalence of leptospirosis was found to be 18%. Preponderance of leptospirosis was observed among people involved in fishing and related activities followed by agricultural workers.