Understanding leptospirosis:
Context:
- Leptospirosis has developed into a major infectious illness in the modern era. A potentially fatal bacterial zoonotic disease, it typically spreads widely during periods of heavy precipitation or flooding.
About:
- The disease is more prevalent in urban and rural areas as well as warm, humid nations.
- It is estimated to affect 1.03 million people a year and claim the lives of 60,000 people.
- Each year, leptospirosis claims thousands of lives in India.
- The numbers at the global and regional levels, however, are not correct because of misdiagnosis (its symptoms match those of dengue, malaria, and hepatitis), limited availability to proper tests, a lack of awareness among treating physicians, and a lack of environmental surveillance.
- According to study, leptospirosis is more common in the south of India, albeit this could be due to better treatment, which would result in earlier disease discovery.
Causes:
- The bacterium that causes the disease is Leptospira interrogans, often known as leptospirosis.
- It is a disease that, in certain environmental situations, can transmit from animals to humans.
- The disease can be carried by both domestic and wild animals, including rodents, cattle, pigs, and dogs.
- The cycle of disease transmission is started by leptospira, which is normally excreted in the urine of affected animals.
People who are at risk:
- People become a part of the cycle when they come into touch with this urine either directly or indirectly through soil and water that contain leptospira bacteria.
- The illness is also seen as an occupational danger for persons who work in sanitary services, with animals, or in agricultural settings where they come into contact with contaminated water.
- Recreational activities in contaminated rivers and lakes have apparently been linked to an elevated risk of leptospirosis.
These indicate:
- Leptospirosis infections can range in severity from a mild illness like the flu to one that could be lethal.
- The illness is systemic in nature because the infection has the potential to harm so many organs. Leptospirosis symptoms and signs are frequently mistaken for those of other illnesses for this reason, among others.
- In less severe situations, people may not show any symptoms at all or they may onset fever, chills, and headache all of a sudden.
- In severe cases, the condition may, however, cause the liver, kidneys, lungs, brain, and other organs to become dysfunctional.
- The condition in animals may cause stillbirths, weak calves or piglets, or reproductive failure in both cattle and pigs.
The erroneous assumptions:
- Eli pani and ili jwara, which both translate to “rat fever,” are the respective names for the condition in Malayalam and Kannada.
- Leptospirosis is not exclusively produced by rats, as is often assumed, but it has a variety of reservoir hosts, including pigs, cattle, water buffaloes, goats, dogs, horses, and sheep.
- Seasonal patterns like the beginning of the monsoon may also play a role in the development and spread of the disease.
- The likelihood of disease exposure in the area may increase if ambient air is more humid because it may help pathogenic leptospira survive longer in the environment.
- The prevalence of the disease also rises when people are exposed to contaminated water during extreme weather events like floods and storms.
- Similar to rural settings, poor waste management, a high prevalence of stray animals, problematic drainage systems, and unclean sanitation facilities are primary drivers of the disease in metropolitan areas.
- These include unsanitary livestock shelters, dirty paddy fields, and poor water quality in rural areas.
Preventing leptospirosis:
- A “One Health” approach can aid in the management of leptospirosis.
- The concept of “One Health” recognises the connections between the health of people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
- People should take extra measures, such as wearing gloves and boots, if they frequently come into contact with animals or their urine.
- It is essential to prevent animal infection in order to decrease the likelihood of leptospirosis spreading and to lower farmers’ financial losses.
- This necessitates clean animal facilities, which are also favoured to improve animal health and halt the spread of many diseases.
Moving forward:
- In order to educate the public about the risks associated with leptospirosis and create preventative measures that are advantageous to both human and animal health, public health professionals must work closely with the animal husbandry department while keeping the idea of “One Health” in mind.
