[Leptospirosis in the Province of Santa Fé, Argentina. Epidemiologic, clinical and socioeconomic description].

Leptospirosis is produced by a bacteria belonging to the Leptospira genus. Water contaminated with this germ which comes from the urine of infected animals is an excellent source of infection for mammals. It gets into the human body through the skin or mucus. The aims of this work were to describe the cases that occurred during the first five months of 2001, and to determine the causes of this phenomenon. There was a total of 49 patients confirmed by the laboratory, 39 of whom completed the epidemiologic form; 24 of whom were over 15 years of age, 19 were male cases, 13 of whom involved in semiurban jobs; 82% presented fever, 74.3% headaches: 71.8% mialgias and 48.7% presented the conjunctivitis shot; 61.5% showed a flu syndrome, 20.5% a meningeal, and 18.5% respiratory and renal syndrome. These patients had a low level of education, with unstable jobs and lots of rodents in or near their houses. The structure of these houses was precarious, with a deficient system of water drainage. Fifty percent of the patients had primary instruction, 11.1% secondary instruction, one was illiterate, and none had gone to university. Patients coming from rural areas (an outbreak), belonged to a higher social and economic condition and had got infected through exposure in relation with their jobs. Sources of infection in the rural patients were different from those of the urban patients: in the former they were related to the presence of rodents, which related to the type of work, while in the urban cases they had to do with the poverty of their living conditions.