Torrential rains cause an outbreak of leptospirosis in Ecuador

Neighbors and Red Cross staff walk through a flooded street in Guayas (Ecuador), on March 11. Guayas Red Cross

The torrential rains that have hit the Ecuadorian coast for a month have left 18 dead, cantons in emergency, overflowing rivers and thousands of homes destroyed.

A regular cycle of rains, the La Niña phenomenon and the incidence of Cyclone Yaku, in northern Peru, have been combined.

It has rained in three days what it rains in a whole month.

In cities of the province of Guayas, the inhabitants have lived for days with water up to their waists.

It is there where more cases of leptospirosis have been reported, a disease that is contracted by contact with water contaminated by the urine of rats or other animals such as dogs, cats and even cows.

The Ministry of Health has detected 65 cases since January and one person has died.

Although leptospirosis is an endemic disease in the South American country, the authorities are alert because 29 cases were reported in the last week alone, a considerable increase compared to the previous year, when three were detected.

The epidemic outbreak has been concentrated in eight provinces and in towns that lack basic services, such as drinking water and sewerage, "where there have been floods and there is a presence of domestic and farm animals, in the case of rural areas, where the When the water rises, it mixes with urine,” explains José Ruales, Minister of Health.

This is the case of the city of Durán, when it rains people prepare for the worst.

“All the streets look like rivers, mixed with garbage, dead animals, the sewers look like pools, it is terribly unsanitary,” describes Johana Salmerón, a member of the El Recreo neighborhood committee in Durán, and outbreaks of leptospirosis appear after each downpour. where people must cross polluted water to reach their homes.

The rain is also the opportunity to store water in the face of constant service cuts, or for children to bathe or play without seeing the danger.

"By contaminating your skin with that water, the disease occurs," warns Ruales.

According to the Ministry of Health, the cases that have been presented correspond to phase one of the epidemic, in which it can be contained with timely treatment.

“If this progresses to liver, neurological injury;

that is to say, type two, which has not yet been observed, this may be more serious”, added the minister.

When the disease becomes complicated, it can lead to Weil syndrome "which is a severe condition that will affect various organs due to the inflammation it produces, which requires the patient to be hospitalized and even go to intensive care," explains the epidemiologist Marcelo Aguilar. , who remembers that the last time there was a significant outbreak of leptospirosis in Ecuador was in 1998 when the country suffered the ravage of the El Niño phenomenon, and registered more than 800 cases.

This epidemiological outbreak comes when the country also faces regular cases of dengue and zika, with symptoms such as muscle aches, fever, nausea, similar to those of leptospirosis.

The Minister of Public Health alerts citizens not to bathe in stagnant water, or walk barefoot in the mud, and to comply with hand and food cleaning protocols.

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