Abstract

ECHEVERRI, Lina María; ATEHORTUA, Santiago  and  OSPINA, Sigifredo. Leptospirosis and positive IgM in hospitalized patients in a tertiary care institution in Medellín, Colombia, 2009. Case report and literature review. Infect. [online]. 2011, vol.15, n.2, pp.118-123. ISSN 0123-9392.

Due to the fact that leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease that goes underdiagnosed and may cause serious complications, it must be included among the infectious diagnoses to rule out for infected patients. It occurs in developed populations and in tropical regions, both in urban and rural areas, causing epidemics or becoming endemic. Patients usually show benign symptoms or are even asymptomatic, and it may resemble other infectious diseases, which complicates its diagnosis; however, in some cases, it causes severe and fatal complications. The purpose of this paper is to remark the importance of having a high clinical suspicion to make a timely diagnosis of this disease, reporting a series of 14 patients with symptoms suggestive of leptospirosis, who had a positive serology for Leptospira spp., supporting the clinical diagnosis. Out of those patients, six had serious complications and two had fatal outcomes. Data were obtained from patients from different municipalities of Antioquia and Chocó, who consulted and were hospitalized in a tertiary care institution in Medellín, Colombia, during 2009.

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