Leptospirosis, one of killer diseases in Mumbai

It’s official. Leptospirosis is one of the diseases that killed over a hundred people in Mumbai and its adjoining areas in the last fortnight following the floods.

Twenty-one of the 66 samples that arrived in Pune from Kalyan and Dombivli have tested positive for leptospirosis. Eleven samples from Mumbai too, tested positive for the disease at the state diagnostic laboratory at Sassoon General Hospital.

The National Institute of Virology (NIV) which had conducted simultaneous tests for a dengue virus, stated in its report that the samples tested negative for dengue.

As for leptospirosis cases in Pune, Dr V L Yemul, Dean, B J Medical College, said: ‘‘There is no need to panic in Pune as patients seeking treatment in public or private hospitals are mainly from Mumbai.