Epidemiological characteristics of human leptospirosis in Slovak Republic, 2008-2019.

Abstract

Aim of study: The purpose of this study was observation of some epidemiological characteristics of human leptospirosis in Slovakia during 2008-2019.

Materials and methods: Patients' data analysed in this work were obtained from laboratory diagnostic and trawling questionnaires. The diagnosis of acute leptospirosis was confirmed by the serological examination in the micro-agglutination test in accordance with clinical and epidemiological data. Statistical analyses were performed by software STATA version 18 (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX, USA).

Results: Average annual incidence rate in Slovakia in the study period was 0.185/100,000 population. Case-fatality rate was 2.48% due to three fatal cases. The infection affected more men (80.16%) than women (19.84%) mostly in the age of 20-69 years old with the peak in 50-59 years old. Almost three quarters of affected persons were people without professional exposure. The highest number of cases was recorded in the period from June to November, peaking in August (25.62%). The most cases of infections were reported from administrative regions Košice (23.14%) and Trenčín (22.31%).

Conclusions: Incidence rate of human leptospirosis maintains the declining character in the study period, which has been present in recent decades in Slovakia. The numbers are most likely underreported, due to the misdiagnosing of leptospirosis cases caused by broad spectrum of clinical manifestations and low awareness of clinicians of possible diseases etiology.