Weil's disease is the severe form of Leptospirosis, a serious bacterial infection caused by Leptospira bacteria, spread through contact with urine from infected animals (like rats, cattle, dogs) via contaminated water, soil, or direct contact, leading to symptoms like jaundice, kidney failure, bleeding, and respiratory issues, often requiring hospitalization.
Leptospirosis can often be treated by your GP. You'll usually be given antibiotic tablets to treat the infection. Most people recover in a few days or weeks. It's important to finish the course of antibiotics, even if you start to feel better.
Severe leptospirosis (Weil's syndrome) symptoms may start three to 10 days later, including:
You can get leptospirosis if you have contact with water, food or soil contaminated with infected animal urine. Symptoms are usually flu-like, but may develop into serious conditions such as kidney failure, bleeding and jaundice.
It generally takes 2-30 days to get sick after having contact with the bacteria that cause leptospirosis. The disease may occur in two phases: In the first phase, people may have fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, vomiting, or diarrhea. The person may feel better for a while but become ill again.
Leptospirosis is a disease that spreads from animals to humans, caused by infection with the bacteria Leptospira. The most common sources of infection are contact with the urine of infected animals and/or contaminated soil or water. Outbreaks may occur following periods of heavy rain or flooding.
About 100 to 200 people are usually diagnosed with leptospirosis in Australia every year. Most infections are mild, but it can be serious, especially for certain groups. Leptospirosis can occur across Australia but is more common in humid or tropical areas.
The most common way dogs get leptospirosis is through water contaminated with urine, particularly stagnant or slow-moving water like puddles, ponds or lakes. Another source is from contact with urine-contaminated soil, bedding or food.
The germ can survive in moist conditions outside the host for many days or even weeks. However, they are readily killed by drying, exposure to detergents, disinfectants, heating to 50 C for five minutes and they only survive for a few hours in salt water.
Rodent-borne infectious diseases
You can catch weil's disease anywhere where you're likely to come into contact with infected animal urine, but most likely on the waters edge as you get in and out of your boat/SUP. Leptospirosis is an infection caught through contact with infected animal urine (mainly from rodents, cattle or pigs).
A person can become ill 2 days to 4 four weeks after being exposed. The symptoms may last from a few days to several weeks. Without treatment, recovery may take several months.
Avoid contact with water, soil or animal products that may be contaminated with animal urine: cuts or abrasions on the skin should be covered with a waterproof plaster. Don't wade, swim in or swallow floodwaters or water from lakes, rivers or swamps. If such activity is unavoidable, limit your time in the water.
Treatment. Your pediatrician will prescribe antibiotics to treat leptospirosis. Children with a mild infection can be treated with oral amoxicillin if they are younger than 8 years. Oral doxycycline is used for children 8 years and older.
The bacteria that cause leptospirosis have been found in cattle, pigs, horses, dogs, rodents, and wild animals. Leptospirosis is an important disease passed from animals to people. Outbreaks of disease in humans are usually caused by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of infected animals.
Pathogenic Leptospira spp. do not multiply outside the host. In the environment, they require high humidity for survival and are killed by dehydration or temperatures greater than 50°C (122°F).
capable of causing disease in humans and animals. Wild rats (Rattus spp.), especially the Norway/brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) and the black rat (R. rattus), are the most important sources of Leptospira infection, as they are abundant in urban and peridomestic environments.
Infected wild and domestic animals excrete the bacteria into the environment. Many different types of environments in both rural and urban areas can be contaminated such as lakes, streams, puddles, vegetation, and mud. Even fenced yards can be contaminated by rodents, squirrels, or raccoons.
Leptospirosis is caused by an infection with the spirochete bacterium Leptospira and is most often spread through exposure to the urine of infected animals either from direct contact or from contact with soil or water contaminated by the urine.
Who gets hantavirus disease? Anyone who comes into contact with infected rodent droppings, urine, saliva, nesting materials, or particles from these, can get hantavirus disease. Exposure to poorly ventilated areas with active rodent infestations in households, is the strongest risk factor for infection.
Opossums carry diseases such as leptospirosis, tuberculosis, relapsing fever, tularemia, spotted fever, toxoplasmosis, coccidiosis, trichomoniasis, and Chagas disease. They may also be infested with fleas, ticks, mites, and lice.
Tularaemia is a rare bacterial disease that is usually acquired from handling infected animals, bites of infected ticks or deer flies or from contaminated food or water. In Australia, ringtail possums have been associated with human infection and other wildlife may carry the disease.
Dementia is one of the most feared conditions among Australian health service consumers, second only to cancer.
Leptospirosis
Australia's top three causes of death consistently include Dementia (including Alzheimer's disease), Ischaemic Heart Disease, and Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases (like COPD), though their exact ranking can shift, with dementia often leading for women and heart disease for men, but the overall gap narrowing significantly, according to recent ABS data.