New Delhi: Leptospirosis is an exceedingly rare bacterial disease that transmits to people through the urine of infected animals such as dogs and rats, according to an expert on Saturday, after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was diagnosed with the illness.
Speaking to IANS, Dr M Wali, Senior Consultant in the Department of Medicine at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said leptospirosis derived its name from leptospira, a spiral bacteria (spirochaete) in the family of Leptospiraceae.
“It is a spiral bacteria, like a spring, and this is usually a disease of animals like dogs, mostly rats and some farm animals, pigs, zebras, and horses,” Wali said.
The doctor explained that this spreads via contamination or through direct contact with loosely available food items or water infected with rat urine.
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“In very rare cases, it can also spread via unprotected sexual intercourse, especially by anal sex,” Wali said.
The disease causes “very high temperature, headache, muscular pains, vomiting, and diarrhoea.”
It also has eye involvement, sometimes with yellow or brown patches, depending upon the complexion and pain in the abdomen.
How serious is the disease?
Wali said leptospirosis is usually self-limiting and can resolve within two weeks with antibiotics.
“But if the infection is severe, then it can spread to the kidney, can go to the brain, spinal cord, liver.”
While the liver is mainly involved, it can spread to the lungs in rare cases.
Importantly, the expert noted that the disease is difficult to diagnose and can thus remain in the body for some months.
“Patients can go from one doctor to another, as the fever may not be treated because it is not diagnosed. “
The doctor may suspect and conduct a simple PCR test to diagnose the disease. The antibiotic doxycycline can contain it well, said Wali.
The disease can turn fatal if it enters the brain,” Wali said while noting that it “does not spread from human to human, only by contamination”.
“People must not consume loosely available food items from Kirana stores, only packaged and properly sealed food. Rat-infested loosely available groceries must be avoided,” Wali advised.
Leptospirosis is endemic to India due to a tropical climate that complements the transmission of infection.
Scientists believe the first disease outbreak in the 1920s came from the Andaman Islands.
It is one of the most widespread yet neglected zoonoses, with most reports from South America, the Caribbean, and South Asia.
In India, it is endemic to coastal states like Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Despite causing significant mortality in India, the disease remained highly under-reported, majorly because of its endemic nature, lack of diagnostic modules, and lack of awareness among the treating clinicians. There is also a paucity of literature available on the burden of the disease.
To tackle the information gap, the government launched the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Leptospirosis (NPPCL) in the endemic states in 2015.
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