Study of Decreasing Kinetics of the Leptospiremia During Antibiotic Treatment of Leptospirosis in Martinique

The leptospirosis evolves on an endemic mode in French West Indies and its incidence in 2011 was de 61/100 000 inhabitants, 100 times more than the metropolitan France's incidence (0,47/100 000). If cases can arise all year long, periods of heavy rainfall are associated with the arisen of epidemic peaks Clinical presentation of leptospirosis include a wide range of symptoms: the most frequent form is a flu-like syndrome but more severe forms are described as meningitis, uveitis and classical severe presentation such as lung bleedings and liver-kidneys infringement (syndrome of Weil) which constitute the most severe forms of the disease.

Currently , Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the only test who can provide a diagnostic confirmation during the first week of development and before the appearance of the first antibody.

If the microagglutination test (MAT) is considered the gold standard test for diagnosis of leptospirosis. However it requires rending samples to the referent National center for the leptospirosis at Pasteur Institute in Paris while the antibodies do not appears until the second week of illness. A second sample is required 15 days after the first one, to confirm the diagnosis.

In clinical practice , the technique of real-time PCR for the detection and quantification of pathogenic Leptospira during the first week of illness . The technique of diagnosis of leptospirosis by real-time PCR has been implemented and tested in 2007 at the University Hospital of Martinique and providing to the clinicians from 2008. The optimal duration of antibiotic therapy has not been studied and experts now recommend for a 7 to 10 days, regardless of the severity of the disease. The evolution of leptospiremia treated patients has not been studied to date.