BIO

Isabelle Lednicky is a second year chemical engineering student at Florida State University. Her research interests include pathology, drug research and vaccine development. She hopes to pursue a career in one of these fields.

Assessing the Prevalence of Risk Factors for Leptospirosis in Rural Honduras

Abstract

Leptospirosis is a bacterial illness caused by the Leptospira bacterium which is transmitted to humans through contact with infected animal urine and contaminated water. This puts people in developing countries without access to clean water (especially during periods of flooding) at highest risk for infection. Despite being the most common global zoonotic illness, Leptospirosis is severely underdiagnosed in rural areas, particularly in subtropical and tropical countries. Consequently, and without proper treatment, this disease often results in progression to serious side effects such as liver or kidney failure. The aim of this project is to come up with effective survey questions for community members to study the prevalence of risk factors for Leptospirosis in rural Honduras. We did so by first researching known risk factors and determined which ones would be most common in rural Honduras then created survey questions aimed at collecting data on what possible exposures the people living there have been exposed to and their symptoms from the last 4 weeks. Surveys will be sent to Honduras to be filled out by community members. This data in the future will be analyzed and complied to get a better understanding of how this disease is spread and what preventative measures we can put in place to prevent further outbreaks.

Keywords: Leptospirosis, Zoonosis, Infectious disease