Lai-like leptospira from the Andaman Islands

Background & objectives : Leptospirosis has been an important public health problem in the Andaman Islands since 1988. As information about the exact etiological agent is not available, the present study was undertaken to iso late and identify Leptospira from human patients. Methods : An isolate coded AF61 was recovered from the blood of a patient c linically suspected to have leptospirosis, with fever, headache and body ac hes as the main symptoms. The isolation was done using Ellinghausen-McCullo ugh-Johnson-Harris (EMJH) medium following standard procedure. The isolate was identified using microscopic agglutination test (MAT) with 'groupsera', cross agglutination absorption test (CAAT) and monoclonal antibodies. Results : Agglutination tests with rabbit antisera revealed that the isolat e belonged to the serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae. The CAAT results showed th at it was closely related to the serovar lai. Analysis of AF61 with monoclo nal antibodies confirms our observation with CAAT that it is closely relate d to the reference strain Lai serovar lai. Interpretation & conclusion : Serovar lai, has been associated with pulmona ry haemorrhage in China and Korea. However, the strain AF61 was not isolate d from a patient with pulmonary symptoms. Further studies are needed to und erstand the possible relationship between serovars and clinical patterns an d the distribution of serovar lai and lai-like strains in Asia.