RT Book, Section
A1 Dunn, John R.
A1 Fill, Mary-Margaret
A2 Boulton, Matthew L.
A2 Wallace, Robert B.
SR Print(0)
ID 1182667644
T1 Leptospirosis
T2 Maxcy-Rosenau-Last Public Health & Preventive Medicine, 16e
YR 2022
FD 2022
PB McGraw Hill
PP New York, NY
SN 9781259644511
LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1182667644
RD 2024/04/25
AB Leptospirosis  is  a  zoonotic  bacterial  infection  with  a  ubiquitous  worldwide  distribution.  Weil’s  disease,  or  severe  icteric  leptospirosis  associated  with  renal  failure,  was  first  described  in  1886.  However,  reports  of  illnesses  that  most  likely  representing  leptospiral  jaundice  date  back  to  the  early  1800s.  The  causative  organism  of  leptospirosis,  Leptospira  species,  was  recognized  independently  in  Japan  and  Germany  in  1915  through  the  investigation  of  illnesses  related  to  occupational  and  environmental  exposures.1  Leptospirosis  is  the  likely  etiology  for  other  long  recognized  occupational  hazards  among  rice  field  workers  in  China  and  Japan,  and  was  referred  to  as  “Autumn  Fever.”1  Now  considered  an  emerging  neglected  infectious  disease,  it  is  estimated  to  cause  1  million  severe  cases  and  60,000  deaths  annually.2  Prompt  recognition  and  treatment  of  leptospirosis  continue  to  be  problematic  due  to  the  wide  spectrum  of  clinical  manifestations  and  imperfect  diagnostic  tests.  Due  to  the  complexity  of  the  organism,  global  distribution,  and  the  lack  of  robust  surveillance  data,  the  reported  burden  of  leptospirosis  worldwide  is  underestimated  and  the  epidemiology  poorly  described.