Human Hardjo leptospirosis detected in the Slovak Republic by using serum antibody absorption test.

Objective: The study was aimed at the discovery of the possible presence of the human Hardjo leptospirosis in Slovakia.

Background: Throughout the world, there is a considerable number of publications confirming the presence of this zoonotic infection in domestic animals. On the contrary, scarcely more than a dozen of reports dealing with this occupational disease in humans was published till now.

Human Mozdok leptospirosis first diagnosed by serum agglutinin-absorption tests in the Slovak Republic.

Introduction: The serovar Mozdok related leptospirosis in humans were not yet feasibly diagnosed using merely the standard micro-agglutination test (MAT) what was perhaps due to the impossibility to distinguish them from illnesses that are caused by Leptospira strains belonging to other serovars of the serogroup Pomona. On the contrary, leptospires of the Mozdok serovar were cultured from rodents and domestic animals world-wide including Central Europe where only Leptospira strains of the serovars Pomona and Mozdok are known to be present till now.

Study Objective: The aim of the study was to discover if leptospires of Mozdok serovar may cause human leptospirosis that remained hidden till now among infections diagnosed merely by MAT as Pomona illnesses.

DNA relatedness and serotyping of Leptospira strains.

Background: In a previous study (5), the constructed phylogenetic tree for leptospires belonging to 12 different serovars common in Central Europe made the prediction of serovar from knowing the genotype and vice versa possible.

Objective: The study was aimed at investigation of the usefulness of such procedure to distinguish in between at present to us available and worldwide accepted reference strains of pathogenic Leptospira serovars.

Material And Methods: One hundred and seventy seven Leptospira strains representing different serovars were tested.

Long-term trends in the epidemiology of human leptospirosis (Slovak Republic, 1954-2006).

The purpose of this study was the observation of eventual shifts in some basic epidemiological features of human leptospirosis in Slovakia over a long period of time. Epidemiological traits of human leptospirosis were evaluated in three decades: 1954-1963 (822 cases), 1976-1985 (477 cases) and 1997-2006 (310 cases). The evaluation encompassed the aetiologic structure of cases, the incidence rate of diseases, men-to-women ratio of patients, as well as the professional and seasonal distribution of patients.