title: Prevalence and Diversity of Leptospires in Different Ecological Niches of Urban and Rural Areas of South Andaman Island.
abstract: Leptospirosis is an emerging disease around the globe. South Andaman Island is an endemic region for leptospirosis. We herein compared the prevalence of leptospires in urban and rural areas of South Andaman Island. The PCR detection and isolation of Leptospira revealed that pathogenic leptospires were prevalent in sewage water and household drainage water in urban areas and in paddy fields, vegetable field water, and stream water in rural areas. These results demonstrate that intermediates are ubiquitously present in the environment and may be responsible for asymptomatic infections, and also provide an insight into disease ecology.
authors.affiliation: Regional Medical Research Centre (ICMR), WHO Collaborating Centre for Diagnosis, Reference, Research and Training in Leptospirosis.
authors.forename: Chandan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lall
authors.forename: K Vinod
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: R Vimal
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Raj
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vedhagiri
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vijayachari
mesh_terms: D058345:Asymptomatic Infections; D019353:Endemic Diseases; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D062312:Islands / Q000453:epidemiology; D007919:Leptospira / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007922:Leptospirosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014505:Urban Population