Coinfection of leptospirosis and dengue fever at a tertiary care center in South India

Introduction: Leptospirosis is a zoonosis with a worldwide distribution affecting almost 160 mammalian species. Dengue, one of the major mosquito-borne arboviral infections of humans is caused by any of the four serologically related viruses designated as DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, and DENV-4. In the presentation of these two diseases, there exists similarity, which may result in the possibility of coinfection. The present study is carried out to confirm our hypothesis. Materials and Methods: The samples which were received from the clinically suspected cases of leptospirosis and dengue for a period of 3 years. All others with definitive alternate diagnosis were not included for the study. Samples were tested for immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies using Serion-virion (virion classic; Institut Virion Serion GmbH, Warburg, Germany) and PanBio IgM antibody-capture (MAC) ELISA (PanBio Inc., Brisbane, Australia) kit as per the instructions provided and the results were interpreted according to the manufacturer. Discussion and Results: In present study, there were 21.41% cases of leptospirosis, 11.2% cases of dengue fever, and 3.6% of cases were co infective. Conclusion: The present study emphasizes that in fewer cases; there may be a possibility of coinfection with leptospirosis and dengue. Therefore, high index of clinical suspicion is required so as to constitute appropriate therapy to reduce the mortality rate.