title: Etiological agents causing leptospirosis in Sri Lanka: A review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To systematically review the etiological agent causing human leptospirosis in Sri Lanka.
  
  
  METHODS
  Published articles on leptospirosis and Leptospira in Sri Lanka were all reviewed to determine serovar, strain and species level identification of Leptospira. After screening process, 74 full text articles/reports were reviewed and among of them, 12 published papers describing isolation of Leptospira from Sri Lankan patients/animals, 5 molecular epidemiology papers on newer typing methods citing Sri Lanka isolates, with a descriptions of the isolates and 6 published papers reporting PCR based species level identification were identified.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Published literature showed that more than 40 strains classified under at least 20 serovars and 10 serogroups have been isolated from Sri Lanka. These isolates belong to four species, namely, Leptospira interrogans, Leptospira kirschneri, Leptospira borgpetersenii, and Leptospira santarosai. In addition, recent studies on direct patient samples without culture and isolation showed Leptospira from Leptospira weilli is also circulating in Sri Lanka. Multi locus sequence typing showed 13 genotypes of Leptospira from Sri Lankan isolates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review shows the diversity of Leptospira in Sri Lanka, but culture isolation data has not been published in Sri Lanka during last 30 years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Saliyapura 50008, Sri Lanka.
authors.forename: Chamidri
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Naotunna
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Saliyapura 50008, Sri Lanka. Electronic address: sunethagampodi@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Suneth Buddhika
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Agampodi
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Saliyapura 50008, Sri Lanka.
authors.forename: Thilini Chanchala
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Agampodi
keywords: Leptospira; Leptospirosis; Serovar; Species; Sri Lanka; Strain