Rodents' Weapon: The Leptospirosis
Health is one of the things we treasure the most. It is central for human happiness and we often see to it that our health won’t be at any risk. However, there are instances that we aren’t able to control especially when our enemy isn’t visible.
Weather, at times, brings a number of health risks for people. One of the most common infectious disease that can be brought to us by flood is Leptospirosis. Water promotes the entry of this infectious disease making it common among water-sport areas. Leptospirosis is an infection caused by corkscrew-shaped bacteria known as Leptospira.
This is often transmitted by rodents’ urine. When a water or soil containing moist urine made a contact with open cuts in the skin, nose, eyes, and mouth, bacteria is spread out and the person will be infected. Also, transmission of the disease in humans occur by either direct or indirect contact with the blood, or tissue of infected animals. This infectious disease begins with a fever accompanied by chills, severe headaches, muscle ache, abdominal pain, and more often than not, a skin rash.
According to UK’s National Health Services (NHS), about 90 percent of leptospirosis infections cause only mild symptoms. Also, signs and symptoms may develop in varying degrees such as headache, fever (38-40 c), rigors, muscle pain (localized to the calf and lumbar areas), nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, dry cough, Pharyngitis. Severe infections only occur in about 10 percent of cases.
The symptoms typically occur one to three days after the mild symptoms pass, and depend on which organ, or worse, organs, becomes infected. It is estimated that almost 10 million people are victimized by this infectious disease annually. Being so, prevention is really a must. It will always be present for cases like this. One can use protective equipment when working to avoid direct contact with infected animals. Also, avoidance to water-sports areas will surely be an effective preventive measure.
Leptospirosis is treated with a course of antibiotics. Most cases of leptospirosis are mild and are treated with a five to seven-day course of antibiotic tablets. Penicillin or tetracycline antibiotic called doxycycline are the options. It’s important to finish the course of antibiotics even if you are feeling better already. Remember, stopping the treatment before all of the bacteria have been killed may trigger the infection to return. If left untreated, there are complications that may exist. The infection can lead to kidney failure, liver failure, or even heart failure. Infections like this need attention, too. Nightmares might happen if this will be ignored. However, someone would need not to worry if he’ll follow preventive safety measures.with reports from Mheica Vanessa Arevalo
