Recent advances in the diagnosis of leptospirosis.

Abstract

Leptospirosis can be found in virtually all tropical and temperate areas of the world and is presumed to be the widely spread zoonotic infection in the world. Because of the variety of clinical symptoms seen in the symptomatic cases, leptospirosis at its onset is often misdiagnosed as aseptic meningitis, influenza, hepatic disease or fever (pyrexia) of unknown origin. The disease has been widely spread, ranging from subclinical infection to a severe syndrome of multiorgan infection with high mortality. It is an occupational hazard for people who work outdoors or with animals, such as rice and sugar-cane field workers, farmers, sewer workers, veterinarians, dairy workers, and military personnel. Various diagnostic methods have been developed for the diagnosis of leptospirosis that includes direct examination; serology and molecular based techniques, but have various shortcomings, so there is a need to develop an effective surveillance system to monitor the trends of disease to control this life-threatening zoonosis. Now a day's biosensor based technology becomes an excellent platform in the field of diagnostics due to their better sensitivity and specificity. So different types of biosensors such as enzyme-based, tissue-based, immunosensor, DNA biosensors, thermal and piezoelectric biosensors have been discussed here to highlight their indispensable applications in different fields. In this review, we will examine the current utilization of functionalized detection methods with other synthetic mixes for the development of biosensor prompting to the location of particular analytes with low discovery cut-off and quick reaction.