Leptospirosis can cause sickness and death in animals and is a common workplace hazard.
It can transfer to humans through direct or indirect contact with infected urine or contaminated water, resulting in anything from a minor flu-like sickness to admission to hospital and long-term illness.
The study will try to address gaps in leptospirosis knowledge that will inform control strategies by identifying risk factors, sources and paths for human infection.
It will recruit 150 incident cases over 18 months including patients from general practices, hospitals and through medical officers of health.
Principal investigator, Associate Professor Jackie Benschop says the ultimate goal is to reduce the increasing burden of the disease in New Zealand.
“Two-thirds of patients are hospitalised, many suffer long after infection and numbers are increasing.
“The use of protective equipment does not necessarily prevent infection, animal vaccines do not cover all strains and it is popping up where people had previously thought it would not.”
It is putting an unacceptable burden on New Zealanders in agricultural industries and rural communities.
“We and others have been doing a lot of work on the infection but with this study the focus is on those ill with the disease.
“We aim to provide an improved evidence base for policies and practices to lower the incidence and health consequences of leptospirosis in NZ and contribute new knowledge about this globally important, emerging health hazard,” she says.
“Direct benefit will occur through the reduction in incident cases, a more productive workforce and potentially provision of information to reduce livestock infection and identification of new animal vaccine candidate strains.”
The study will seek to understand existing and emerging environmental paths by employing molecular tools, genomics and modelling from other disease studies. That will include a study of risk factors, infecting species and sources of infection.
“We have observed that the demography of patients is changing.
“Our pilot work suggests the disease patterns are changing with more rodent sources and environmental pathways, including flooding, becoming increasingly important in disease transmission with more women affected as well as more patients employed outside of the traditional high-risk occupations.”
Traditionally the disease is thought to infect pigs, sheep, cattle, goats, rodents and possums but cases have been found in animals not previously considered as carriers such as domestic cats, alpacas and horses so they, too, will be investigated for decisions to be made about widening vaccine targets.
“Our environment is changing, the disease is changing with it so we must keep studying it as these changes occur to understand the developing risks,” she says.
The $1.2m study is being done with Otago University, the Environmental Science and Research Institute, doctors and in several Massey University departments including the Centre for Public Health Research and the Fundamental Sciences Institute.
