DUSHANBE, July 18, Asia-Plus — 78 residents of the Fayzobod district, 56 kilometers east of Dushanbe, have been diagnosed with leptospirosis (an acute infection disease).
Samaraddin Aliyev, Head Physician of Tajikistan’s Center for Sanitary-Epidemiological Supervision, told Asia-Plus that the outbreak had apparently been caused by water. According to him, the heavy rainfalls that hit the district in May could wash away holes of rodents, which are the main carriers of this disease. Cattle are also carriers of leptospirosis.
Aliyev noted that those 78 persons having contracted leptospirosis “are in normal condition and all necessary medical aid is provided to them.”
We will recall that it is not the first outbreak of leptospirosis in Fayzobod. 15 residents of the village of Mehrobod in Fayzobod contracted the disease in April last year.
Leptospirosis, also known as canicola fever, hemorrhagic jaundice, infectious jaundice, mud fever, spirochetal jaundice, swamp fever, swineherd”s disease, caver”s flu or sewerman”s flu, is a bacterial infection resulting from exposure to the
Leptospira interrogans
bacterium. There is an acute form of human infection known as Weil”s Disease, where the patient suffers from jaundice, though this term is often (incorrectly) used to describe any case of infection. Weil”s Disease is comparatively rare, though ”mild” cases of leptospirosis are surprisingly common across the globe.
Aliyev denied rumors about outbreak of hemorrhagic fever in the country as unfounded. According to him, Danghara and Rudaki districts had two cases of hemorrhagic fever each and Ayni and Bokhtar districts had one case each.
