A Review of Laboratory Diagnosis and Treatment of Leptospirosis

Abstract

Leptospirosis is an infectious disease affect human and animal. The diagnosis is challenging due to none specific clinical features, lack of awareness and poor access to health care. Therefore the disease becomes underreported. Early diagnosis is essential because antibiotic treatment is most effective when it is initiated early. However, laboratories tests for early diagnosis still lacking. The disease may be demonstrated by direct or indirect methods. Direct methods are the detection of the organism or its components and indirect methods are the detection of specific antibodies of the organism. This review highlights the major diagnostic techniques in leptospirosis with their advantages and disadvantages as well as the treatment. The search criteria focused on the thesis we obtained and searching in the websites (Google

Immunological and Molecular Diagnostic Techniques for Leptospirosis: An Update

“…Medical science strategies are now required due to the decreasing likelihood of leptospires detection in blood. Immune globulin antibodies appear later than immune globulin during Leptospira infection, peaking after a few weeks of illness and remaining at a low level for the rest of the infection [12].…”

“…Macroscopic slide agglutination test (MSAT) was developed for the identification of leptospirosis. Stoenner and Davis have changed the preparation of plate substances for leptospirosis diagnostic and terminated that this antigen may well be utilized in fast tests, getting similar sensitivities with the MSAT in human, porcine and bovine sera [12]. This test is conducted with a dense suspension of leptospires that agglutinate into clumps visible to the eye.…”

“…For early protein identification during the course of the disease, it is far more sensitive than MAT and ELISA. The most significant disadvantages of this test are that it is ineffective for epidemiologic investigations, strain identification, determining the likely infecting serogroup, and confirming ill health for the public health surveillance [12].…”

“…Because of the quality of the MAT, speedy screening tests for leptospiral antibodies in acute infection are developed. Standard medical science strategies like enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) area unit wide used for the diagnosing of Leptospira infection [12]. It is a truly sensitive and specific check for the biological diagnosing of leptospirosis.…”

Detection of Leptospira in urine of apparently healthy dogs by quantitative polymerase chain reaction in Haryana, India

“…Molecular diagnostic techniques are increasingly being used for clinical diagnosis because these are more sensitive as compared to culture methods. These techniques are faster, organisms can be detected directly in specimens and the infections can be confirmed earlier than serological tests [ 8 ]. For the molecular diagnosis of infectious diseases of both man and animals, the development of real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is a boon to the society.…”