Outbreak of 4 leptospirosis cases in a family group in tropical rural zone of Colombia: a case report

Abstract

Leptospirosis is a zoonosis with clinical manifestations caused by pathogenic spirochetes of the genus Leptospira spp. Its course can range from mild illness to a severe jaundice-hemorrhagic syndrome called Weil’s disease. An epidemiological outbreak consisting of a series of four cases of leptospirosis of moderate to severe severity, which occurred in a rural area with a tropical climate in the eastern plains of Colombia, at 450 meters above sea level, was studied in a visiting family in Puerto Lleras, Meta, Colombia. Probably secondary to the consumption of water contaminated by rodent urine. The patients were admitted on suspicion of an infectious jaundice syndrome with a false positive for hepatitis B surface antigen. Two patients developed Weil’s syndrome associated with thrombotic microangiopathy, requiring ICU management, however, one of them died and the other two patients develop moderate signs and symptoms showing a variable course of the disease. In our country there is an overreporting of febrile, jaundice and jaundice syndromes of different etiologies and difficult diagnosis, so that leptospirosis tends to be confused or ignored as differential in many cases.