Leptospirosis: A Review on Zoonosis in Indian Scenario

Abstract

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic contagious bacterial disease of animals affecting both humans and animals (Slack, 2010). Leptospirosis goes by many names like 7-day fever, harvest fever, field fever, canefield fever, mild fever, rat catcher's yellows, Fort Bragg fever, pretibial fever, rice field worker disease (Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 2015) etc. It has historically been known as black jaundice and in Japan it is called Nanukayami fever. It is caused by corkscrew-shaped spirochaete bacteria of the genus Leptospira (Slack, 2010). It causes various symptoms ranging from none to mild sickness such as headaches, muscle pains, and fevers and even severe with bleeding from the lungs or even meningitis (Bride et al., 2005). In case of Weil’s disease, the person becomes icteric having kidney failure and bleeding (Bride et al., 2005). Sometimes it causes a lot of bleeding into the lungs then it is known as severe pulmonary hemorrhage syndrome (Klopfleisch et al., 2011).