Published in:
01-12-2018 | Brief Report
Epidemiology, clinical and laboratory features of 24 consecutive cases of leptospirosis at a German infectious disease center
Authors:
Thomas Theo Brehm, Julian Schulze zur Wiesch, Marc Lütgehetmann, Dennis Tappe, Philip Eisermann, Ansgar W. Lohse, Marylyn M. Addo, Stefan Schmiedel
Published in:
Infection
|
Issue 6/2018
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Abstract
To determine epidemiological, clinical and laboratory characteristics of leptospirosis, 24 consecutive patients diagnosed with the infection between 2011 and 2017 at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf were retrospectively analyzed. The majority of patients were male travelers who returned from Southeast Asia and had a history of freshwater-associated activities. Considering the lack of discriminatory clinical or clinical chemistry parameters, leptospirosis should be regarded as differential diagnosis in any patient with acute febrile illness, especially with a history of travel to tropical and subtropical regions or freshwater exposure.