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has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: Isolation of L. interrogans Serovar Pomona in 14 Human Cases and an African Lion, All with Chronic Leptospirosis

  AUTHORS: Beatriz Rivas-Sánchez, Oscar Velasco-Castrejón, Jesús Jimenez-Martínez

  KEYWORDS: Chronic Human Leptospirosis, Immunostaining, Leptospira Pomona, Culture, Isolation

  JOURNAL NAME: Open Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol.6 No.4, December 21, 2016

  ABSTRACT: Depending on its time of evolution, leptospirosis presents two phases: acute and chronic. The chronic leptospirosis is widely accepted in animals and, until recently, this was denied in humans. Since the 1990s, we have studied dozens of cases demonstrating the chronicity of leptospirosis, including an asymptomatic or undetermined form that may remain so throughout life time or may evolve into a definitive chronic disease and/or worsen, becoming severe cases. A fundamental part for its demonstration is the isolation and characterization of the etiologic agent. In this work, the first 14 isolations of Leptospira sp. are reported from human chronic leptospirosis and an African lion diagnosed with chronic leptospirosis, obtained between 2002 and 2006, in urine, blood, and skin microbiopsies. From the 14 isolations from patients with chronic leptospirosis, one of the cases is apparently congenital and two are from patients with chronic asymptomatic leptospirosis. The diagnosis was performed by means of videorecording in darkfield microscopy in blood and urine, specific culture media, and MAT serology. Argentic impregnation and detection of specific antigen by immunostaining in blood were performed in seven patients; in two patients, skin microbiopsies and biopsies were performed. All cases were positive by video-recording in darkfield, one of them MAT was 1:160, and the rest were positive at low titers (≤1:80). The two skin biopsies were positive by argentic impregnation and immunostaining. Eleven isolates were obtained from blood, two from skin, and one from urine. The isolates were characterized by monoclonal antibodies as Leptospira serovar Pomona. L. Pomona is considered of low virulence and high adaptability to the host, and is frequently associated to chronic leptospirosis in animals. In our study, it was the only isolated serovar, including the one isolated from the lion, which would seem the most common one in our country and responsible for a large portion of cases of chronic human leptospirosis.