MONDAY, Feb. 13 (HealthDay News) -- A University of Hawaii professor and a graduate student who helped clean up a laboratory after a flood in 2004 developed leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that occurs after contact with mud or water contaminated with urine from animals infected with Leptospira interrogans, according to a report in the Feb. 10 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The two cases "highlight the importance of maintaining clinical suspicion for leptospirosis after flooding in areas where the illness is endemic, even in well-developed urban settings," according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Leptospirosis is endemic in tropical settings, including Hawaii. The two cases followed heavy rains on October 31, 2004, that caused a stream to overflow and flood the campus. A professor, aged 56, cleaned his flooded lab while wearing sandals and was hospitalized for leptospirosis. The man was treated with oral doxycycline and recovered.
In a subsequent Internet survey of the campus community by health authorities, 90 (33.2 percent) of 271 respondents reported a febrile illness within 30 days of contact with flood water. One more leptospirosis case was confirmed in a 27-year-old graduate student who worked in the same lab, and recovered without treatment.
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