Outbreak of leptospirosis during a scout camp in the Luxembourg Belgian province, Belgium, summer 2012.

An outbreak of leptospirosis occurred in the South of Belgium, during August 2012, in teenagers who participated in two consecutive adventure scout camps near the Semois river. Among the symptomatic patient population (ten scouts), clinical manifestations included headache (70%), myalgia (50%), fever (50%), bilateral conjunctival injection (50%), general malaise (30%), vomiting (20%), anorexia (20%) and cough (20%). Some of the cases presented elevated blood creatinine (40%), or proteinuria (30%). Three patients were confirmed by serology and one by polymerase chain reaction. Potential risk factors included direct contact with a muskrat and indirect contact with potentially contaminated environments including the river water. Prospective environmental investigation carried out near the river banks 2 weeks after the outbreak identified Ondatra zibethicus (muskrat) as one Leptospira sp. reservoir.

Mosaic tetrasomy 15q25-->qter in a newborn infant with multiple anomalies.

We describe a premature boy with metopic craniosynostosis, facial anomalies, atrial-septal defect, hydronephrosis and flexion contractures of lower limbs, and mosaic tetrasomy 15q25-->qter. The extra chromosome material was present in the form of an acentric marker. A number of clinical manifestations observed in this child were also found in 3 previously reported patients who were trisomic for the same part of chromosome 15 and in 2 patients who were tetrasomic for a larger segment of 15q.