Taller Nacional: Situación Epidemiológica, Prevención y Control de las Enfermedades Transmisibles en el Perú; Lima, 18-20 jul. 2006.

We look at the epidemiology of the most common infectious diseases that in 1998 affected the countries of Central America most seriously damaged by Hurricane Mitch: Belice, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Incidence and mortality figures and fatality rates for cholera, dengue, malaria, and leptospirosis, before and after the hurricane, come from data provided by each country's ministry of health

Leptospirosis has, traditionally, been considered a sporadic rural disease. We describe a large urban outbreak of leptospirosis. Active surveillance for leptospirosis was established in an infectious-disease referral hospital in Salvador, Brazil, between March 10 and Nov 2, 1996. Patients meeting case criteria for severe manifestations of leptospirosis were recruited into the study. The diagnosis was confirmed in the laboratory with the microagglutination test and identification of leptospires in blood or urine. Risk factors for death were examined by multivariate analyses. their urine, produces a wide range of clinical. An epidemic of leptospirosis has become a major urban health problem, associated with high mortality. Diagnostic confusion with dengue fever, another emerging infectious disease with a similar geographic distribution, prevents timely intervention that could minimise mortality