Incidence of Leptospirosis Infections among Acute Febrile Patients in Lakhimpur and Dhemaji Districts, India

Abstract

Leptospirosis is a disease condition of infected wild or domestic animals. Humans get this infection when they come in touch with the contaminated soil or water in the infected animal’s urine/excreta of animal reservoirs directly or indirectly. Water logging during rainy session, traditional cultivation with animals and water flow to the rivers are common in Assam. Those events may increase the risk of infection and that is why Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts were choose for our study area as both districts are neighboring of hilly area (Arunachal Pradesh) and found maximum water logging. Blood samples were collected from the acute febrile patients reported to the laboratory for different tests like typhoid, japanese encephalitis (JE), dengue, malaria etc. Serums were obtained from the whole blood and selected only the JE, dengue, malaria, typhoid negative samples for our studys, Original Research Article Malakar et al.; IJTDH, 15(3): 1-5, 2016; Article no.IJTDH.25132 2 after the consent from the patients or attendance of the patients. The test results showed that 2.13% (16/750) patients were positive for leptospirosis. Where 12.5% (2/16) positive patients were from Dhemaji district and races were from Lakhimpur. Clinical finding represented fever 100% (16/16), headache 68.75% (11/16), myalgia 50% (8/16), conjunctival suffusion 6.25% (1/16), jaundice 12.5% (2/16), cardiac arrhythmia 12.5%(2/16), skin rash 6.25% (1/16), haemorrhage 6.25% (1/16), unconsciousness/semiconciousness 12.5% (2/16), nausea/vomiting 6.25% (1/16), and abdominal pain 6.25% (1/16) in the positive patients. This proves the prevalence of leptospirosis in the study districts of Assam. An awareness of disease transmission could minimize the disease risk.