Leptospirosis in Zenica coal miners: etiological, clinical and therapeutical overview

Abstract

This paper has shown an epidemics of leptospiroisis amongst employees of the Coal Mine in Zenica, with the emphasis on etiology, seriousness of clinical picture and laboratory tests. In average hospitalisation lasted for 18.2 days which included beta lactams for 14 days. A mild and less serious disease occured in 19 patients (86,36%) whereas 3 patients (13,64%) had severe form of the disease and there was one fatal outcome with Weil disease. The most common were febrile and hepatic and renal forms of the disease and one patient developed meningitis. The news in this epidemics was Leptospira interrogans serovar ballum which is rare in these areas.

Keywords

• Leptospirosis
• miners
• epidemics