Without treatment, Leptospirosis can lead to kidney damage, meningitis (inflammation of the membrane around the brain and spinal cord), liver failure, respiratory distress, and even death.
Leptospirosis is treated with antibiotics, such as doxycycline or penicillin, which should be given early in the course of the disease. Intravenous antibiotics may be required for persons with more severe symptoms. Persons with symptoms suggestive of leptospirosis should contact a health care provider.
The illness lasts from a few days to 3 weeks or longer. Without treatment, recovery may take several months.
About 10 percent of people with leptospirosis develop severe disease, including kidney failure and/or liver damage, meningitis, difficulty breathing, and bleeding. Case fatality rate is 5 to 15% in cases with severe clinical illness.
The innate immune system constitutes the first line of host defence, playing a crucial role in early recognition and elimination of leptospires. The activation of the alternative pathway of the complement system is one of the most important effector mechanisms during the first hours of infection [27, 28].
You can include ginger in your diet: It is one of the effective ways to treat Leptospirosis. According to a study conducted on mice, the ginger extracts decrease anti-inflammatory cytokines which can control the organ damage due to Leptospirosis. You can consume ginger by including in your soup, dal and so on.
Some infected persons, however, may have no symptoms at all. Without treatment, Leptospirosis can lead to kidney damage, meningitis (inflammation of the membrane around the brain and spinal cord), liver failure, respiratory distress, and even death.
Outbreaks of leptospirosis are usually caused by exposure to contaminated water, such as floodwaters. Person to person transmission is rare.
Wash floors and surfaces with a sanitizing solution like bleach (one-part household bleach and 10 parts water) to kill the bacteria.
Medical emergency
Leptospirosis can have serious life threatening effects. Get medical attention if cuts in your skin or your mucous membranes, such as your eyes, have been exposed to the urine of unvaccinated animals or farm animals, or contaminated water or soil.
To diagnose leptospirosis by serologic testing, one blood sample should be obtained upon presentation (ie, an acute sample) and a second sample should be obtained 7 to 14 days after the first antibody test is sent (ie, a convalescent sample). A four-fold change in IgG titer confirms infection.
The clinical manifestations of human leptospirosis are diverse, ranging from mild, flu-like illness to a severe disease form known as Weil's syndrome. Severe disease is characterized by jaundice, acute renal and hepatic failure, pulmonary distress and hemorrhage, which can lead to death [1].
Leptospirosis is an important disease passed from animals to people. Outbreaks of disease in humans are usually caused by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of infected animals. This disease can be transmitted from dogs to people, but it is rare that this happens.
See a doctor within 24 hours of suspected exposure or if flu-like symptoms develop, to get a blood sample and antibiotic treatment. Tell the doctor that leptospirosis may be the cause of your illness – some doctors may not be familiar with the symptoms.
Leptospirosis is treatable with antibiotics. If an animal is treated early, it may recover more rapidly and any organ damage may be less severe. Other treatment methods, such as dialysis and hydration therapy may be required.
The bacteria that cause leptospirosis are killed instantly by heat, disinfectants, acids and alkalis. They are also killed by being dried out. Normally-cooked food and boiled water will be safe.
Recovery from leptospirosis infection can be slow. People can have a chronic-fatigue-like illness that lasts for months. Others can have persistent headache or depression. Occasionally the bacteria can persist in the eyes and cause chronic eye inflammation.
There are two basic types of leptospirosis vaccines available, attenuated and inactivated leptospirosis vaccines. However, these two types of vaccines reveal significant safety problems.
Symptoms of Leptospirosis can develop anytime between 2 days to 4 weeks after being exposed to bacteria causing leptospirosis.
Human-to-human transmission occurs only very rarely. Leptospirosis may present with a wide variety of clinical manifestations, from a mild illness that may progress to a serious and sometimes fatal disease.
Without treatment, this can lead to life-threatening kidney failure. If it affects the brain or spinal cord, meningitis, encephalitis, or both may develop.
The animals can then spread it in their urine. The germ can survive in moist conditions outside the host for many days or even weeks. However, they are readily killed by drying, exposure to detergents, disinfectants, heating to 50 C for five minutes and they only survive for a few hours in salt water.
Persons can get the disease by swimming or wading in fresh unchlorinated water contaminated with animal urine or by coming into contact with wet soil or plants contaminated with animal urine. Chlorinated water, such as that in swimming pools or municipal drinking water, has not been shown to transmit leptospirosis.