Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease with one of the highest morbidity and mortality rates (Costa et al. 2015), with an average of 1.03 million people around the world getting infected each year (Costa et al. 2015). It is caused by infectious species of the genus Leptospira and can be transmitted to human by a wide variety of animals (Levett 2001) and infection occurs after exposure to bodily fluids of infected animals. Leptospira enter the human body through small abrasions or skin cuts, reach the blood stream and disseminate. Direct contact with these fluids as well as exposure to contaminated environmental sources are important risk factors for contracting leptospirosis (Haake and Levett 2015). Clinical manifestations of the disease can vary from flu like symptoms to fever, myalgia, arthralgia, and jaundice (Levett 2001; Ko et al. 2009; Haake and Levett 2015). Severe leptospirosis occurs in 6.85% of clinical cases and may produce multisystem complications such as acute renal or hepatic failure, and pulmonary hemorrhage syndrome (Costa et al. 2015; Haake and Levett 2015). Despite the importance of leptospirosis impact on human health, our limited understanding about its epidemiology have complicated its control and prevention. This situation is compounded by the fact that most leptospirosis cases are concentrated in low-income communities of tropical regions, where disease underreporting is highly common and research is limited as a consequence of low economic resources (Costa et al. 2015; Hagan et al. 2016).
The goal of this project is to describe the prevalence of Leptospirosis in Ecuador and identify potential socioeconomic and environmental factors that contribute the the disease burden felt in this population.