ABSTRACT
Leptospirosis is at present an ever-increasing problem in human and animal health. By means of the Korthof medium, 43 Leptospira strains were isolated from samples of human blood, water and soil. For their identification the microagglutination technique was used. The strains corresponded to the species Leptospira biflexa and Leptospira interrogans.
Subject(s)
Environmental Microbiology , Leptospira/isolation & purification , Cuba , Humans , Leptospira/classification , Leptospira interrogans/classification , Leptospira interrogans/isolation & purification , Leptospira interrogans serovar canicola/classification , Leptospira interrogans serovar canicola/isolation & purification , Leptospirosis/microbiology , Serotyping , Soil Microbiology , Water Microbiology , Weil Disease/microbiologyABSTRACT
This paper deals with 254 monosera of patients with leptospirosis verified by macroagglutination test with thermoresistant antigen (TR antigen) and passive hemaglutination (HA), as reference technique. The TR antigen was elaborated according to the method described by Mailloux and coworkers, 1974, with modifications, and it showed a wide generic reactivity. It was specific when serologic test were performed with hyperimmune sera obtained from febrile disease producing bacteria and the causal agent of syphilis. The results obtained by both serologic tests were compared and it was observed that 106 sera (41.73%) were reactive to HA, which showed a highly significant statistical difference between the two techniques; so a lower sensibility of TR macroagglutination test was determined.