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Leptospirosis - Causes and Symptoms
Posted on: 08/Dec/2015 2:18:43 PM
Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease. This occurs in humans and animals and is caused by bacteria of the genus Leptospira. This will give rise to various symptoms of which few are misunderstood for other diseases. In a few case, there will be no symptom at all.
If not treated at the right time and right way, this may lead to kidney damage, meningitis, liver failure, respiratory diseases or may even turn to be life threatening.
Infection:
This disease is caused by bacteria which is spread through urine of infected animals that are found on water or soil and can survive for weeks to months. There are several wild and domestic animals that carry the bacterium. Some of these animals are cattle, pigs, horses, dogs, rodents, and wild animals.
Such infected animals however do not carry any symptom of the disease. These infected animals will keep excreting bacteria into the environment. Or they may excrete it once in a while for a few months to several years.
How do humans get affected?
Humans get affected when they come in contact with the urine or body fluids of infected animals. When they come in contact with water, soil or contaminated food which carries contamination by urine of such infected animals. The bacteria find their way into human body through skin, mucous membrane of eyes, nose or mouth, cut or scratched skin, etc. The infection can also be caused by contaminated drinking water. Exposure to such contaminated water while walking or being on floodwater is the main cause of outbreak of leptospirosis. Transmission from one person to the other is rare, however.
What is the risk of exposure?
The disease occurs across the world, however it is most common in temperate or tropical climate. This is in fact an occupational hazard for those who work outdoors like mine workers, farmers, sewer workers, slaughterhouse workers, veterinarians, animal caretakers, fish workers, dairy farmers, military personnel, and so on.
Swimming, wading, rafting in contaminated water bodies, kayaking, etc are some of the other causes of the disease. It is also a recreational hazard for campers or those who take part in outdoor sports. For participants of activities in tropical or temperate climates, this is more likely.
There is also an increase in incidence of leptospirosis infection among urban children.
Symptoms:
There may be various symptoms of the disease including high fever, headache, chills, muscle ache, vomiting, jaundice, red eyes, diarrhea, abdominal pain, rashes, and so on. In many cases, such symptoms are mistook for other diseases. Further, there may be no symptom at all in a few cases.
It hardly takes two days to four weeks for a person to develop the disease after exposure to the contaminated source. The incidence of the disease usually outbursts with fever and other symptoms. The disease occurs in two phases. During the first phase where the patient experiences fever, headache, muscle ache, vomit, diarrhea etc, the patient will recover for a time period, but turn ill once again. During the second phase, there will be severe illness like failure of kidney or liver, meningitis, etc. T This phase of the disease is also called Weil`s disease.
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