Leptospirosis in Caspian Sea littoral, Gilan Province, Iran.

In Iran, leptospirosis is endemic to Caspian Sea littoral. The disease appears as a seasonal infection mostly affecting people in rural areas involved in farming. We investigated the prevalence of this infection among suspected patients in Gilan Province by an indirect immunofluorescent assay (IFA), and two PCR protocols, a nested-PCR and a real-time PCR (qPCR), targeting rrs and lipL32 genes, respectively.