SEVERE LEPTOSPIROSIS AND MULTIPLE PARASITIC INFECTIONS IN A PEDIATRIC PATIENT FROM THE PERUVIAN AMAZON

Aguilar-Gamboa F.R.; Saavedra-Camacho J.L.; Mera-Villasis K.M.; Coaguila-Cusicanqui L.Á. · Revista de la Facultad de Medicina Humana (2026) · DOI: 10.25176/rfmh.v26i2.7692

Resumen

A school-aged female patient from a native Amazonian community presented with a 14-day history of acute febrile illness accompanied by myalgia, headache, gastrointestinal symptoms, jaundice, bloody diarrhea, and progressive deterioration with somnolence, cough, respiratory distress, and arthralgia. Physical examination revealed arthritis involving the left hip and knee, with erythema and swelling, without indication for surgical intervention. During hospitalization, she developed severe respiratory distress with respiratory acidosis, requiring intubation, vasopressors, and management in the intensive care unit. Laboratory and imaging studies showed leukocytosis, thrombocytopenia, elevated procalcitonin levels, a bilateral interstitial pattern, mild pleural effusion, a blood culture positive for Staphylococcus warneri, positive leptospirosis IgM, and expulsion of Ascaris lumbricoides. She received broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy, hemodynamic and nutritional support, and multidisciplinary care. After extubation, she showed progressive improvement, although joint inflammation persisted, and she remained critically ill but stable under intensive monitoring. 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

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional Pedro Ruiz Gallo