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Leptospirosis in Man and Rodents on Taiwan^*

James W. Fresh, Che-Chung Tsai, Chuan-Huang Lai AND Che-Tong Chang

A survey for leptospirosis in man and wild rodents in Taiwan, by serologic and cultural techniques, revealed that 3.22% of 8,362 school children were positive by the macroscopic slide-agglutination test of Galton et al.¹³ The number of positive reactions dropped to 1.94% when the microscopical agglutination-lysis test was employed.

A group of 65 patients with illnesses suggestive of leptospirosis were studied. Ten (15.4%) were serologically positive, and in two (3.08%) L. canicola was isolated by culture.

Of 586 rodents studied, 38 (6.48%) were positive by the macroscopic slide-agglutination test, and 20 were positive by culture. R. norvegicus were more often positive although they represented only 32% of the trapped population, and 18 of 193 (9.32%) animals were positive. Only two of 282 (representing 48.5% of the trapped population) R. rattus had positive cultures (0.71%).

^* This study was supported in part by funding under Public Law 480, Section 104(c), and in part through funds provided by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Navy Department, for Work Unit MR005.090061.

The opinions and assertions contained herein are those of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Navy Department or the Naval Service at large.

Mailing address: U. S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2, Box 14, APO San Francisco, California 96263.