What is Leptospirosis?

Leptospirosis, also known as Weil’s disease, is a bacterial zoonotic disease caused by spirochaetes of the genus Leptospira that affects humans and a wide range of animals, including mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles.

The infection is commonly transmitted to humans by allowing water that has been contaminated by animal urine to come in contact with unhealed breaks in the skin, eyes or with the mucous membranes. The disease features headache, muscle pain and tenderness, conjunctivitis, vomiting, a skin rash, jaundice, liver damage and sometimes meningitis or heart failure.

Leptospirose magnified 200 times with dark-field microscope.