Leptospirosis: Animals screened to find carrier

The bacterial infection has so far affected 121 and killed 18 people in Mumbai since its outbreak in July this year.

A team of experts from Chennai are currently visiting random ‘goshalas’ to collect blood and urine samples of cows and buffaloes within the city limits. Over a hundred samples will be collected by Monday. These will be tested at the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University over the next 10 days to assess which animal in Mumbai is responsible for spreading leptospirosis that has caused unusual fatalities this year.

The bacterial infection has so far affected 121 and killed 18 people in Mumbai since its outbreak in July this year. Apart from Mumbai, 119 cases and one death have been reported from across the state. While leptospirosis is considered a curable and non-fatal disease when treated within three days of development of symptoms, the high number of deaths, in Mumbai only, has forced the civic health officials to screen for the animal which is the carrier of the disease.

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According to additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh, at least 100 samples of dogs and rodents have already been tested and the leptospirosis bacteria strain was not found in them. According to deceased patients’ blood samples tested at Regional Medical Research Center (RMRC), Port Blair, the current epidemic in Mumbai is being caused by two rare bacteria serovars (strains) — Tarassovi and Djasmin.

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“There are over 250 serovars known to us. We have conducted microscopic agglutination test (MAT) on the patients’ blood specimen and found these two serovar in all of them. To tackle the disease, the carrier has to be identified first,” said RMRC’s director P Vijayachari.

According to Dr Rajan Naringrekar, leptospirosis infection spreads through contaminated urine from an infected animal. “The animals can be a rodent, dog, goat, or cattle. We are not sure which animal has this bacterial strain that is causing the outbreak,” he said.

“The BMC is now systematically screening animals to check which animal is the carrier of Tarassovi and Djasmin. Dogs and rodents have already been screened. If the bacteria is found in cattle, the owners will be asked to conduct immunisation of their respective cow or buffalo,” said Deshmukh.

In the last week of August, 15 leptospirosis cases were recorded by the civic health department. According to health officials, there is no known vaccination for Tarassovi and Djasmin bacteria yet. “The only way to stop the spread of the disease is through the start of the chain, the animals,” Deshmukh added.

tabassum.barnagarwala
@expressindia.com

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