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Leptospirosis

• Overview
• Symptoms
• Treatment
• Prevention

Alternative Names:

Weil disease; Icterohemorrhagic fever; Swineherd's disease; Rice-field fever; Cane-cutter fever; Swamp fever; Mud fever; Hemorrhagic jaundice; Stuttgart disease; Canicola fever

Symptoms:

• Incubation period of 2 - 26 days (average 10 days)
• Abrupt onset of fever, rigors, myalgias, and headache in 75 - 100% of patients
• Dry cough (25 - 35% of cases)
• Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea (50% of cases)
• Less common symptoms include joint aches, bone pain, sore throat, and abdominal pain
• Conjunctivitis
• Approximately 7 - 40% of patients may have muscle tenderness, an enlarged spleen or liver, enlarged lymph glands, sore throat, muscle rigidity, abnormal lung sounds, or skin rash

Signs and tests:

Diagnosis is most frequently done by testing the blood for antibodies to the bacteria.

Other tests may be done:

• A white blood cell count generally shows less than 10,000 white blood cells.
• Urinalysis is usually abnormal.
• Higher-than-normal creatine kinase is found in approximately 50% of patients.
• About 40% of patients have a slight to moderate increase in liver enzymes.

• Review Date: 9/25/2006
• Reviewed By: Charlotte Grayson, MD, Private Practice specializing in Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease, Smyrna, GA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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