A retrospective analysis of the leptospirosis research in Colombia

Abstract

Introduction: Leptospirosis is a re-emerging infectious disease whose prevalence is often underestimated, not only in Colombia, but in most developing countries. The objective of this paper is to assess the research status of leptospirosis in Colombia in order to identify trends, knowledge gaps, and directions for future research.

Methodology: With the aim of gathering all the information available on leptospirosis in the country, a web search was conducted in various indexes and databases. The search terms used were: Leptospirosis + Colombia. A total of 95 publications were found and analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: The first report of leptospirosis in the country was published in 1957. More than 60% of the published works focus on the prevalence of the disease. The Central part of the country is the area with the highest number of publications. MAT was used in 84% of the prevalence studies and humans are the most studied taxonomic group, with 45% of the publications. The highest prevalence of the disease was registered for rodents (82.7%, 62/75), followed by humans (67.9%, 53/78), pigs (67.6%, 342/506), and dogs (67.2%, 41/61). The prevalence of the disease in the country is associated with occupational factors, hygiene conditions and contact with rodents.

Conclusion: Although leptospirosis is a prevalent disease in Colombia, the limitations of the diagnostic techniques used and the lack of a unified criteria on titers thresholds, make an accurate assessment of the prevalence of the disease in the country problematic.