Prevalence of Leptospirosis Among Patients Attending Renal and General Outpatient Clinics in Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda

Abstract In this study we sought to establish the prevalence and associated factors of Leptospirosis among renal patients and general outpatients attending Mulago National Referral Hospital, Uganda. This cross-sectional study recruited and collected blood samples from a total of 254 patients attending Mulago hospital from July to October 2018. Additionally, the semi-structured questionnaires were administered to enrolled patients to collect data on socio-demographics and occupational practices that may be risks of getting infected with Leptospirosis. The blood samples were analyzed using the standard Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) with a panel of 14 Leptospira-serovars belonging to 10 serogroups. We identified 12 seropositivity of Hebdomadis, Hebdomadis (L.borgapetersenii serovar Nona), Icterohaemorrhagiae (L.interrogans Serovar Icterohaemorrhagiae, Canicola (L. interrogans serovarCanicola), Djasiman (L. interrogansserovarDjasiman), Pomona (L. interrogans serovar Pomona) and Ballum (L. borgpetersenii serovar Kenya). The overall prevalence of leptospirosis in examined samples was 4.7% (CI = 2.6-8.3, P<0.05) among patients attending Renal and General Outpatient clinics in Mulago hospital. The participants who reported with fever were 15.4 times more likely to be diagnosed with leptospirosis. The study reveals that leptospirosis may be among the causative agents among renal patients and should be included among the differential diagnostic list to consider for further testing and diagnosis.