Leptospirosis is a major public health problem in Andaman Islands. Several strains of Leptospira have been isolated from the Andamans over the years. Leptospires isolated recently from human cases were compared with one of the earliest available isolates from these islands, dating back to 1929, to study their serological and genetic relatedness. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fingerprints of the isolates, generated with a primer used previously to differentiate between Leptospira species and serovars, revealed that some of the recent isolates were genetically identical to the 1929 isolate. The antigenic properties of these strains, as revealed by microscopic agglutination tests with group-specific rabbit antisera and mAbs, were also similar. These findings suggest that a Leptospira strain originally isolated in 1929 has possibly persisted in these islands for over 70 years and continues to cause acute leptospirosis in humans.
BoomR,
SolC. J. A,
SalimansM. M. M,
JansenC. L,
Wertheim-van DillenP. M. E.,
van der NoordaaJ.1990; Rapid and simple method for purification of nucleic acids. J Clin Microbiol 28:495–503
BrownP. D,
LevettP. N.1997; Differentiation of Leptospira species and serovars by PCR-restriction endonuclease analysis, arbitrarily primed PCR and low-stringency PCR. J Med Microbiol 46:173–181[CrossRef]
RamdassP,
LathaD,
SenthilkumarA,
SrinivasanP,
SaranyaN.2002; Arbitrarily primed PCR – a rapid and simple method for typing of leptospiral serovars. Indian J Med Microbiol 20:25–28
TaylorJ,
GoyleA. N.1931; Leptospirosis in the Andamans . Supplement to Indian Journal of Medical Research Memoir no: 20Indian Research Fund Association Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co;