Serological evaluation of leptospirosis in Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh: a retrospective hospital-based study.
OBJECTIVE
Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease with humans getting the infection either from rodent hosts or from domestic animals. Urine contaminated environment is the common source of infection. This is an under-reported disease in Andhra Pradesh. We report a retrospective hospital-based study on 55 patients with suspected leptospirosis.


METHODS
A total of 55 serum samples were collected from patients with suspected leptospirosis and subjected to serological testing by LeptoTek Dri-dot, microscopic agglutination test (MAT) and IgM enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Identification of the predominant infecting serotype was done using a panel of 12 serovars.


RESULTS
MAT analysis of all the 55 samples identified all cases to be positive. The predominant serogroup was Icterohaemorrhagiae (68%) followed by Australis (22%), Autumnalis (8%) and Javanica (2%). LeptoTek Dri-dot showed a sensitivity of 96% as compared to MAT. IgM ELISA done on 32 samples showed a sensitivity of 86.7% compared to MAT.


CONCLUSIONS
MAT helped to identify Icterohemorrhagiae as the predominant serovar in this study. Despite the small number of samples analyzed, the data obtained establishes a need for a prospective study in this region.
Velineni
S
S
Department of Animal Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India.
Asuthkar
S
S
Umabala
P
P
Lakshmi
V
V
Sritharan
M
M
D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006386:Hemagglutination Tests; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000276:immunology; D007194:India; D007919:Leptospira / Q000254:growth & development / Q000276:immunology; D007922:Leptospirosis / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012698:Serologic Tests
D007075:Immunoglobulin M