At the general meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Chicago Wednesday, researchers suggested the illness, commonly found along the coast but now also appearing inland, may have been unrecognized or misdiagnosed in the past. Bharadwaj said that when doctors began to correctly diagnose the bacterial infection and treat the disease with appropriate antibiotics, dramatic cures resulted, prompting other doctors to test their patients for the disease. After treatment, he was able to walk out of the clinic and go home. No one there expected him to come home alive.
Leptospirosis is caused by infection with a spirochete, a spiral-shaped bacterium.
Bharadwaj said symptoms include fever, jaundice and kidney failure, the most serious of complications from the infection. People who work in fields, rice paddies and other rural areas often are infected by the bacteria, which is often transmitted by rodents or other animals, including pet dogs. We are fortunate that leptospirosis is still a disease that is susceptible to most of the older antibiotics. Treatment with these antibiotics can rapidly cure the illness. K Fl gstad .