Review of floods influence in leptospirosis outbreaks

Abstract

In recent decades it is clear to note the effects that climate change has brought with it in the increasingly frequent occurrence of extreme weather events such as heavy rains and floods. Same, which in turn has an impact on the distribution of pathogens of infectious diseases transmitted by water. Floods are the natural disaster that occurs most frequently and, in addition, has been associated with epidemic outbreaks of leptospirosis throughout the world. The present work is a collection of information about floods that have given rise to outbreaks of leptospirosis around the world for which the Google Scholar, Scielo, Scopus, Science Direct, Clinical Key, and PubMed databases were used, finding 18 articles that related flooding-leptospirosis. With the analysis of the information, it is suggested that a preventive measure for the contagion with the disease should be oriented to the control and mitigation of flood events for which a first step would be the identification of flood zones near sites that present the factors of risk associated with the disease.