Human leptospirosis in Croatia: current status of epidemiology and clinical characteristics

Abstract

This study presents the current status of human leptospirosis in Croatia from an epidemiological and clinical viewpoint. Data from annual reports of the Croatian Institute for Public Health as well as archives of the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases 'Dr Fran Mihaljevic' (UHID) in Zagreb were used in this retrospective cohort analysis. The mean yearly incidence of leptospirosis from 1990 to 2007 was 1.83/100 000 inhabitants, with an incidence >2.5/100 000 inhabitants recorded approximately every 3-4 years, making Croatia one of the countries with the highest incidence of human leptospirosis in Europe. In addition to the majority of sporadic cases, two minor outbreaks were recorded. The clinical burden and more detailed epidemiology of 130 patients hospitalised at UHID in the period 1997-2007 were also studied. Clinical presentations were as expected, with an overall case fatality rate (CFR) of 0.77%. The most commonly established infective serovars were Australis followed by Saxkoebing and Grippotyphosa. In comparison with previous periods, the mean yearly number of patients with leptospirosis hospitalised at UHID decreased, but among them a rather higher rate of patients with Weil's disease and a higher CFR was observed.

Leptospirosis trends in China, 2007–2018: A retrospective observational study

“…The Philippine post‐flood outbreak generated 2,299 local cases and 178 (case fatality rate 8%) deaths (Amilasan et al, ). In China, most leptospirosis cases typically occur in summer and autumn, which are consistent with reports from countries in both temperate and tropical zones (Slack, Symonds, Dohnt, & Smythe, ; Topic et al, ). In temperate climates, the rates of leptospirosis are in the range of 0.1–1 per 100,000 per year, while these rise to 10–100 in the tropics during normal endemic periods; epidemics in tropical, wet regions often see infection rates greatly exceeding 100 per 100,000 (Sakundarno et al, ).…”

The role of gender in the prevalence of human leptospirosis in Albania

“…Based on previous reports the gender ratio for leptospirosis in Albania goes as high as 1:8 in favour of the males [3]. Although different studies have shown different ratios, there is a major body of literature that demonstrates a higher incidence of leptospirosis in males worldwide [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. The goal of this study is in four points: to give some data and to share our experience with human leptospirosis in Albania; to describe the prevalence regarding to the role of gender in the prevalence of human leptospirosis; to make a gender specific analysis of the clinical manifestations in patients diagnosed and treated for leptospirosis in our infectious diseases service during January 2005-December 2016 period and to do a review of literature related to this hypothesis.…”

Molecular Survey of Zoonotic Agents in Rodents and Other Small Mammals in Croatia

“…With a mean yearly infection incidence of 1.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, Croatia has one of the highest recorded incidences of human leptospirosis in the world. 1 Borrelia infections result in two distinct tick-transmitted diseases, Lyme borreliosis and relapsing fever (RF). Both are endemic in Croatia with majority of cases of borreliosis reported in the northwest of the country.…”