Leptospiral infection: a serosurvey in urban and rural communities in Olavarría county (Argentina).

RIVERO M.A; SCIALFA E.; APPENDINO H.M.; BARBERO M.; ESTEIN S.M.; SIGNORINI M.; GONZALEZ AYALA S.

The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries

SASSARI

Lugar: SASSARI; Año: 2022

1668-3498

Introduction: Leptospirosis is a neglected zoonotic disease, affecting mainly poor and vulnerable populations. Methodology: A cross sectional-study was carried out in 557 subjects from Olavarría county (Argentina) with the aim to determine the factors associated with Leptospira sp. seroprevalence. A survey was also carried out to obtain clinical and epidemiological data. Serum was analyzed by Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT). Chi-square or Fisher Exact tests were used to assess association between the MAT results and the exploratory variables. For the variables statistically associated, odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated. Individuals from Olavarría city were georeferenced to describe the spatial distribution and to search for spatial clusters of seropositive results. Results: The overall prevalence of leptospirosis infection was 7.00%, higher in rural (19.66%) than in urban populations (3.64%) (p