Diagnosis, surveillance, and epidemiology of leptospirosis in France.

Leptospirosis is an emerging zoonotic disease worldwide, including in Europe. It remains largely underestimated due to the absence of specific symptoms and a lack of awareness within the medical community, particularly in mainland France, where its incidence, during 2014 and 2015, reached 1 case per 100,000 inhabitants—the highest incidence observed since 1920. Leptospirosis is endemic in many overseas departments and territories (Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion, Mayotte, New Caledonia, French Polynesia), where its incidence can be 50 times higher than in mainland France. Diagnosis is primarily made by detecting bacterial DNA in the blood via PCR during the first week of the disease or by testing for antibodies starting in the second week. Nearly a century after the discovery of the causative agent of leptospirosis, this zoonosis remains a significant public health problem in French territories. Leptospirosis is also considered an emerging disease due to climate change (global warming and more frequent extreme weather events leading to flooding) and increasing urbanization (transmission via rats in unsanitary areas such as slums).

Author(s): Bourhy P, Septfons A, Picardeau M

Publishing year: 2017

Pages: 131-7

Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin, 2017, n° 8-9, p. 131-7

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