University of Otago researchers are helping lead international studies which have discovered that exposure to cattle and rice farming are risk factors for the devastating disease leptospirosis in northern Tanzania.
University of Otago researchers are helping lead international studies which have discovered that exposure to cattle and rice farming are risk factors for the devastating disease leptospirosis in northern Tanzania.
Dr Michael Maze from the University of Otago’s Centre for International Health, says the findings from two research papers, which have just been published in the scientific journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, have implications for potential control of leptospirosis in Africa.
Leptospirosis is a globally important disease that is transmitted from animals to people and affects more than 1 million people worldwide each year. The infectious disease is a major cause of febrile illness and death in Africa, but little is known about risk factors for human infection. The bacteria that cause leptospirosis have their usual life cycle in animals; humans are infected as accidental hosts. In Africa it is unknown which sources of leptospirosis are most responsible for human infection and what behaviours put people at risk of infection.
However, one area of research has identified that cattle and in smaller numbers goats and sheep, but not rodents, are commonly infected with pathogenic Leptospira infection. While the other research focus has shown that exposure to cattle and rice farming are risk factors for contracting the disease.
Read more at University of Otago
Image: Dr. Michael Maze, from the University of Otago's Centre for International Health in Dunedin, New Zealand, has been based in Moshi, Tanzania, as lead investigator in the studies. (Credit: University of Otago)
