SEROPREVALENCE AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF LEPTOSPIRA SPP. IN FEBRILE PATIENTS FROM THE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM IN JAÉN AND SAN IGNACIO, CAJAMARCA, PERÚ, 2021-2023

Santa Cruz López C.Y.; Saldaña Miranda M.; Alvarado Dávila X.; Del Maestro Morales M.; Rivera Salazar C.; Zulueta Vásquez B. · Revista de la Facultad de Medicina Humana (2026) · DOI: 10.25176/rfmh.v26i1.6815

Resumen

Introduction: Leptospirosis is a bacterial zoonosis of public health importance. Objective: To determine the seropositivity, epidemiological characteristics, and distribution of Leptospira spp. serovars in febrile patients from the epidemiological surveillance system of Ministry of Health facilities in Jaén and San Ignacio, Cajamarca, Peru, during 2021–2023. Methods: An observational, cross-sectional, and retrospective study was conducted based on the secondary analysis of a database from the epidemiological surveillance system. A total of 4,489 blood samples from febrile patients of both sexes, with negative results for dengue, Zika, and chikungunya, were included. All samples were tested using IgM ELISA for Leptospira spp.; reactive or indeterminate samples were further evaluated using the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) for confirmation and serovar identification. Descriptive analysis and chi-square tests were performed. Results: IgM reactivity by ELISA was 28.4% (1276/4489), and 10.8% (485/4489) of samples were indeterminate. Among the 1,761 ELISA-reactive or indeterminate samples, 89.9% (1584/1761) were seropositive by MAT. Seropositivity was similar between women and men (89.6% vs. 90.4%; p = 0.576), but was higher in adults aged 30–59 years (92.3%; p = 0.007). The districts with the highest frequency of seropositive cases were Jaén (21.2%), San Ignacio (17.3%), and Morro Solar (12.9%). The most frequent serovars were Varillal (46.34%), Hurstbridge (14.16%), Icterohaemorrhagiae (10.88%), and Bratislava (6.18%). Conclusion: Seropositivity to Leptospira spp. was high among febrile patients in the epidemiological surveillance system of Jaén and San Ignacio, with higher frequency in adults aged 30–59 years. Article published by the Revista de la Facultad de Medicina Humana of Universidad Ricardo Palma. It is an open access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is duly cited. For commercial use, please contact revista.medicina@urp.edu.pe

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional de Jaén