A dominant clone of Leptospira interrogans associated with an outbreak of human leptospirosis in Thailand.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A sustained outbreak of leptospirosis occurred in northeast Thailand between 1999 and 2003, the basis for which was unknown.

Methods and findings

A prospective study was conducted between 2000 and 2005 to identify patients with leptospirosis presenting to Udon Thani Hospital in northeast Thailand, and to isolate the causative organisms from blood. A multilocus sequence typing scheme was developed to genotype these pathogenic Leptospira. Additional typing was performed for Leptospira isolated from human cases in other Thai provinces over the same period, and from rodents captured in the northeast during 2004. Sequence types (STs) were compared with those of Leptospira drawn from a reference collection. Twelve STs were identified among 101 isolates from patients in

SUBMITTER: Thaipadungpanit J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2041815 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature