50-year-old man becomes first victim of leptospirosis this year

PUNE: A 50-year-old man succumbed to leptospirosis at a city hospital recently, becoming the first person to die of the bacterial infection in Pune this year.

“The man, a resident of Bhavani Peth, succumbed to leptospirosis-induced complications on August 6, a day after he was admitted to Tarachand hospital,” a doctor from the hospital said.




The cases of leptospirosis have been on a rise in the last two years. Expert attributed the rise in cases to the increasing number of rodents and their infestation in the drainage lines.

“Besides rise in infestation of rodents in the city’s drainage lines, another contributing factor is cattle rearing. The cattle catch the disease from infected rodents and pass it on to humans through their urine,” a state health official said.

The cases tend to rise after July and this year has been no exception. “The cases of leptospirosis have gone up since July. People need to take precautionary measures to ward off the disease,” senior microbiologist Renu Bharadwaj, head of the microbiology department at B J Medical College and Sassoon General hospital, said.

The hospital’s microbiology laboratory is the referral lab for leptospirosis in Maharashtra.

Fever surveillance and public education are key to contain the disease. However, civic officials are either clueless about the cases or they are morbidly indifferent to carry out enough preventive measure to check the disease, the experts said.

“The areas that have reported cases need to undergo fever surveillance. Besides, awareness activities should also be conducted in the affected the areas,” state surveillance officer Pradip Awate said.

Veterinarians, pet shop owners, sewage workers, and farm employees are at particularly high risk, health officials said, adding that people participating in outdoor sporting activities like hiking, and camping may also come in contact with contaminated water or soil.

Over the years two distinct epidemiological patterns have evolved vis-à-vis leptospirosis infection — the rural and the urban.

“In cities, rodents that infest the sewage system with free living animals act as carriers. Even a light rainfall chokes the poorly maintained drainage systems flooding the roads, causing a spurt in leptospirosis cases during monsoon. In the rural pattern, the outbreaks are associated with agricultural activities such as seeding, planting, and harvesting,” another state health official said.

Anjali Sabne, assistant medical officer of health, PMC, said, “There is another patient with leptospirosis who is currently undergoing treatment at KEM hospital. As for the deceased person, we will investigate the death and initiate preventive measures.”