RECOMMENDED CASE DEFFINITION

RECOMMENDED CASE DEFINITION

WHO Recommended Surveillance Standards - WHO/EMC/DIS/97.1
Clinical description An acute febrile illness with headache, myalgia and prostration associated with any of the following symptoms: conjunctival suffusion meningeal irritation an-/oliguria and/or proteinuria jaundice hemorrhages (from the intestines, lung bleeding is notorious in some areas) cardiac arrhythmia or failure skin rash and a history of exposure to infected animals or an environment contaminated with animal urine. Other common symptoms: nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, arthralgia. Laboratory criteria for diagnosis Isolation (and typing) from blood or other clinical materials by culture of pathogenic leptospires Positive serology preferably by the Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) using a panel of Leptospira strains for antigens that, ideally, is representative of the locally occurring strains Case classification Suspected - a case that is compatible with the clinical description Probably - not applicable Confirmed - a suspect case that is confirmed in a competent laboratory Note: Leptospirosis is difficult to diagnose clinically in areas where diseases with symptoms similar to those of leptospirosis occur frequently.
Contact WHO Division of Emerging and other Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Control (EMC), 20 Avenue Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland E-mail: cosivio@who.ch outbreakemc@who.ch Tel: (41 22) 791 2531 / 4687 / 2111 Fax: (41 22) 791 4893 / 0746 attn EMC The International Leptospirosis Society (ILS) Rudy Hartskeerl (Secretary), Department of Biomedical Research, NH Swellengrebel Laboratory, Meibergdreef 39, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands E-mail: bo@mail.support.nl Tel: (31 20) 566 5441 Fax: (31 20) 697 1841 Home page ILS: http://www.monash.edu.au/informatics/micro/department/ilspage.htm