An Outbreak of leptospirosis associated with cattle workers during the wet season, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33321/cdi.2022.46.23Keywords:
outbreak, leptospirosis, Leptospira, cattle, Northern Territory, rainfallAbstract
An outbreak of leptospirosis occurred in the Top End of the Northern Territory, Australia, during the wet season in early 2021. There were 14 outbreak cases; most were male (12/14; 86%) and non-Indigenous (13/14; 93%) with a median age of 22 years (range 19–52 years). We conducted a descriptive case series to investigate the outbreak. We determined that the outbreak was most likely due to higher than usual rainfall in a workplace with exposure to cattle, heightened by wearing clothing and footwear which offered little protection, with limited use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Increased and ongoing education for cattle industry workers, and promotion of the use of appropriate clothing and PPE, may minimise the risk of future outbreaks. Australia’s national surveillance case definition for leptospirosis should be reviewed to incorporate the use of nucleic acid testing in the detection of leptospirosis.
Downloads
References
Lau CL, Craig SB. Leptospirosis. In Heymann DL, ed. Control of Communicable Diseases Manual (20th edition). Washington, DC: American Public Health Association (APHA), 2015. doi: https://doi.org/10.2105/CCDM.2745.090.
Lau CL, Townell N, Stephenson E, van den Berg D, Craig SB. Leptospirosis: An important zoonosis acquired through work, play and travel. Aust J Gen Pract. 2018;47(3):105–10. doi: https://doi.org/10.31128/AFP-07-17-4286.
Smythe L, Dohnt M, Symonds M, Barnett L, Moore M, Brookes D et al. Review of leptospirosis notifications in Queensland and Australia: January 1998 – June 1999. Commun Dis Intell. 2000;24(6):153–7.
Lau CL, Skelly C, Dohnt M, Smythe LD. The emergence of Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Arborea in Queensland, Australia, 2001 to 2013. BMC Infect Dis. 2015;15:230. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-015-0982-0.
Morgan J, Bornstein SL, Karpati AM, Bruce M, Bolin CA, Austin CC et al. Outbreak of leptospirosis among triathlon participants and community residents in Springfield, Illinois, 1998. Clin Infect Dis . 2002;34(12):1593–9. doi: https://doi.org/10.1086/340615.
Agampodi SB, Karunarathna D, Jayathilala N, Rathnayaka H, Agampodi TC, Karunanayaka L. Outbreak of leptospirosis after white-water rafting: sign of a shift from rural to recreational leptospirosis in Sri Lanka? Epidemiol Infect. 2014;142(4):843–6. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268813001465.
Naing C, Reid SA, Aye SN, Htet NH, Ambu S. Risk factors for human leptospirosis following flooding: a meta-analysis of observational studies. PLoS One. 2019;14(5):e0217643. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217643.
Hacker KP, Sacramento GA, Cruz JS, de Oliveira D, Nery N, Lindow JC et al. Influence of rainfall on Leptospira infection and disease in a tropical urban setting, Brazil. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020;26(2):311–4. doi: https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2602.190102.
Radi MFM, Hashim JH, Jaafar MH, Hod R, Ahmad N, Nawi AW et al. Leptospirosis outbreak after the 2014 major flooding event in Kelantan, Malaysia: a spatial-temporal analysis. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2018;98(5):1281–95. doi: https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.16-0922.
Wynwood SJ, Craig SB, Graham GC, Blair BR, Burns MA, Weier SL et al. The emergence of Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Arborea as the dominant infecting serovar following the summer of natural disasters in Queensland, Australia 2011. Trop Biomed. 2014;31(2):281–5.
Smith JKG, Young MM, Wilson KL, Craig SB. Leptospirosis following a major flood in Central Queensland, Australia. Epidemiol Infect. 2013;141(3):585–90. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268812001021.
Australian Government Department of Health, National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NNDSS). Public datasets. [Internet.] Canberra: Australian Government Department of Health; 2021. [Accessed on 1 March 2021.] Available from: https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/ohp-pub-datasets.htm.
Australian Government Department of Health. Australian national notifiable diseases case definitions. Leptospirosis case definition. [Internet.] Canberra: Australian Government Department of Health; 2004. [Accessed on 1 February 2021.] Available from: https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/cda-surveil-nndss-casedefs-cd_lepto.htm.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System Surveillance Case Definitions. Leptospirosis (Leptospira interrogans) 2013 Case Definition. [Internet.] Atlanta: United States Government Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2013. [Accessed on 20 Feburary 2021.] Available from: https://ndc.services.cdc.gov/case-definitions/leptospirosis-2013/.
Northern Territory Government Department of Health (NT Health). News – Leptospirosis warning. [Internet.] Darwin: Northern Territory Government, NT Health; 1 March 2021. [Accessed on 1 March 2021.] Available from: https://health.nt.gov.au/news/leptospirosis-warning.
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). Northern Territory in February 2021: wet in the north and southwest; cool days, warm nights. [Internet.] Canberra: Australian Government, BoM; 1 March 2021. [Accessed on 30 October 2021.] Available from: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/month/nt/archive/202102.summary.shtml.
Northern Territory Government. Leptospirosis. [Internet.] Darwin: Northern Territory Government; 12 May 2016. [Accessed on 20 February 2021.] Available from: https://nt.gov.au/wellbeing/health-conditions-treatments/bacterial/leptospirosis.
Lilenbaum W, Martins G. Leptospirosis in cattle: a challenging scenario for the understanding of the epidemiology. Transbound Emerg Dis. 2014;61(Suppl 1);63–8. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.12233.
Takafuji ET, Kirkpatrick JW, Miller RN, Karwacki JJ, Kelley PW, Gray MR et al. An efficacy trial of doxycycline chemoprophylaxis against leptospirosis. N Engl J Med. 1984;310(8):497–500. doi: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM198402233100805.
Brett-Major DM, Lipnick RJ. Antibiotic prophylaxis for leptospirosis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009;3:CD007342. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD007342.pub2.
Zoetis Australia. Cattle product information sheet – Leptoshield® Vaccine. Rhodes (NSW): Zoetis; September 2019. [Accessed on 1 March 2021.] Available from: https://www.zoetis.com.au/livestock-solutions/pdfs/zoetis_leptoshield-product-information_print_notrim_hr.pdf.
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Communicable Diseases Intelligence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
