Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Epidemiology and Infection logoLink to Epidemiology and Infection
. 1989 Aug;103(1):143–156. doi: 10.1017/s0950268800030442

Leptospiral infection in school-children from Trinidad and Barbados.

C O Everard 1, R J Hayes 1, C N Edwards 1
PMCID: PMC2249486  PMID: 2789146

Abstract

A serological survey for leptospiral agglutinins was undertaken between 1980 and 1983 in over 500 Barbadian and 500 Trinidadian school-children aged 7-14 years. The children were selected randomly from urban and rural schools, and examined three times at approximately annual intervals. A total of 12.5% of the Barbadian children and 9.5% of the Trinidadian children were seropositive at a titre of 50 using the microscopic agglutination test. On both islands, seroprevalence was higher in males than females, the difference being significant in rural schools. There was no evidence of a difference in prevalence between urban and rural schools, or between junior and secondary age-ranges. Analysis of the association of serology with socio-economic and behavioural factors showed a significant association in Trinidad with father's occupation, but most other variables on both islands showed only weak non-significant associations. Fourteen children in Trinidad and three in Barbados seroconverted. Seroconversion in Trinidad occurred at a rate of 1.6% per annum and was significantly associated with livestock contact and with absence of a tapped water supply. In Trinidad, Autumnalis was the most commonly recorded serogroup, but this accounted for less than a quarter of seropositives. In Barbados, Panama accounted for over half the seropositives and was about four times more common than the next most common serogroup, Autumnalis. In Barbados, 39 persons aged 19 or less were hospitalized with leptospirosis between November 1979 and December 1986. Average annual incidence rates were 2.2, 4.9 and 13.3 per 100,000 in the 5-9, 10-14 and 15-19 age-groups, respectively.

Full text

PDF
143

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Everard C. O., Edwards C. N., Webb G. B., White H. S., Nicholson G. D. The prevalence of severe leptospirosis among humans on Barbados. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1984;78(5):596–603. doi: 10.1016/0035-9203(84)90216-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Everard C. O., Fraser-Chanpong G. M., Everard J. D. The incidence of severe leptospirosis in Trinidad. Trop Geogr Med. 1987 Apr;39(2):126–132. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Everard C. O., Fraser-Chanpong G. M. Serological evidence of leptospirosis in Caribbean schoolchildren. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1979;73(5):591–593. doi: 10.1016/0035-9203(79)90062-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Everard C. O., Hayes R. J., Fraser-Chanpong G. M. A serosurvey for leptospirosis in Trinidad among urban and rural dwellers and persons occupationally at risk. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1985;79(1):96–105. doi: 10.1016/0035-9203(85)90246-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Terpstra W. J., Ligthart G. S., Schoone G. J. ELISA for the detection of specific IgM and IgG in human leptospirosis. J Gen Microbiol. 1985 Feb;131(2):377–385. doi: 10.1099/00221287-131-2-377. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. WOLFF J. W., BROOM J. C. The genus Leptospira Noguchi, 1917; problems of classification and a suggested system based on antigenic analysis. Doc Med Geogr Trop. 1954 Mar;6(1):78–95. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. de StGroth S. F., Scheidegger D. Production of monoclonal antibodies: strategy and tactics. J Immunol Methods. 1980;35(1-2):1–21. doi: 10.1016/0022-1759(80)90146-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Epidemiology and Infection are provided here courtesy of Cambridge University Press

RESOURCES