Parveen Sakkarai Mohamed Asha, Suganyaa Baskar, Sathya Muthu Sri, Margreat Alphonse Asirvatham Princy, Sivasankari Karikalacholan, Shanmughapriya Santhanam, Hoffman Nicholas E, Natarajaseenivasan Kalimuthusamy
Medical Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, Centre of Excellence in Life Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tami Nadu, India.
Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska.
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2016 Jul 6;95(1):38-42. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.16-0095. Epub 2016 Apr 4.
Leptospirosis is mainly considered an occupational disease, prevalent among agriculture, sewage works, forestry, and animal slaughtering populations. However, putative risk to miners and their inclusion in the high-risk leptospirosis group remain in need of rigorous analysis. Therefore, a study was conducted with the objective to assess the leptospirosis seroprevalence among miners of two districts of Tamil Nadu, India. A total of 244 sera samples from Pudukkottai miners (124) and Karur miners (120) were analyzed by microscopic agglutination test. Antibodies to leptospires were detected in 94 samples giving an overall seroprevalence of 38.5%. The seroprevalence was higher among Pudukkottai miners (65.3%) when compared with Karur miners (10.8%). Seroprevalence among control population (13%) was significantly less than that of the Pudukkottai miners marking a possible high-risk population group distinction. Subject sera most commonly reacted with organisms of the serogroup Autumnalis, and the pattern was similar in carrier animals of the study areas. Two leptospires were isolated from kidney samples of rats. The prevalence of Autumnalis among rodents and humans source tracked human leptospirosis among the miners. The study also determined that Pudukkottai miners are subjected to high-risk challenges such as exposure to water bodies on the way to the mines (odds ratio [OR] = 10.6), wet mine areas (OR = 10.6), rat infestation (OR = 4.6), and cattle rearing (OR = 10.4) and are thus frequently exposed to leptospirosis compared with Karur miners. Hence, control strategies targeting these populations will likely to prove to be effective remediation strategies benefiting Pudukkottai miners and workers in similar environments across occupations.
钩端螺旋体病主要被视为一种职业病，在农业、污水处理厂、林业和动物屠宰人群中普遍存在。然而，矿工面临的假定风险以及将他们纳入钩端螺旋体病高风险群体仍需进行严格分析。因此，开展了一项研究，目的是评估印度泰米尔纳德邦两个地区矿工中的钩端螺旋体病血清阳性率。通过显微镜凝集试验分析了来自普杜科泰矿工（124人）和卡鲁尔矿工（120人）的总共244份血清样本。在94份样本中检测到了抗钩端螺旋体抗体，总体血清阳性率为3８.5%。与卡鲁尔矿工（10.8%）相比，普杜科泰矿工中的血清阳性率更高（65.3%）。对照人群中的血清阳性率（13%）显著低于普杜科泰矿工，这表明可能存在高风险人群组差异。受试者血清最常与秋季热血清群的病原体发生反应，且该模式在研究区域的带菌动物中相似。从大鼠肾脏样本中分离出了两种钩端螺旋体。秋季热血清群在啮齿动物和人类中的流行情况追踪了矿工中的人类钩端螺旋体病。该研究还确定，普杜科泰矿工面临诸如在前往矿井途中接触水体（优势比[OR]=10.6）、矿井潮湿区域（OR=10.6）、鼠患（OR=4.6）和饲养牛（OR=10.4）等高风险挑战，因此与卡鲁尔矿工相比，他们更频繁地接触钩端螺旋体病。因此，针对这些人群的控制策略可能会被证明是有效的补救策略，使普杜科泰矿工以及各行业类似环境中的工人受益。
