Leptospirosis in Ceylon — Epidemiological and Laboratory Studies

Analysis of morbidity statistics in Government hospitals in Ceylon reveals that among the causes of morbidity, Pyrexias of Unknown Origin (P.U.O.) rank second only to the enteric diseases. The contribution of leptospirosis to the group of P.U.O. has not been evaluated. Awareness of this disease in Ceylon was created by Falisevac and Arumainayagam (1959). They wrote, " Since the climatic, geographic and economic and other conditions in Ceylon are similar to those in Indonesia, Malaya and other countries in which leptospirosis is prevalent, one should presume that tin's disease should be very common in Ceylon as well. On a visit to the General Hospital, Colombo, we saw a case which had the history of'unicteric leptospirosis'; subsequent serological examination confirmed our suspicion". Since then Maretic, Arumainayagam, Nityananda, Wickremasinghe and Ratnatungc, (1962), Nityananda (1962), Rajasuriya, Munasinghe, Vitaranc, Wijesinghe, Ratnaike and Peiris (1964), Wallooppillai, Markhus and Nityananda (1966) and dc Silva, Mendis and Nityananda (unpublished), by their studies have shown that leptospirosis is widely prevalent in this country. The epidemiology of this disease has not been investi­ gated, with the result that the public health importance of it is not fully appreciated. Tjalma and Galton (1965), while discussing the current concepts regarding the public health significance of this disease, observed that "the phenomenal spread and establishment of epizootic leptospirosis among livestock has served to create an enormous reservoir and potential source of human infection ". In 1954 the United States Department of Agricul­ ture estimated an annual loss to their agricultural economy of over 100 million dollars due to leptospirosis.