| | Definition: | | Any disease caused by a member of the bacterial genus <EM>Leptospira</EM>, which chiefly afflicts a number of livestock and other domestic animals but can also affect humans. The disease is spread by the urine of infected people and animals. When found in humans, the disease is also called canicola fever, mud fever, swamp fever, hemorrhagic jaundice, infectious jaundice, spirochetal jaundice, swineherd's disease, and Weil's disease, and tends to infect people who handle animals or who come into contact with animal urine (either directly or through contaminated soil and water) or infected animal tissue. Symptoms often include fever, headache, chills, and muscle pain, but can also include jaundice, bleeding and/or hemorrhaging in or below the skin, rash, meningitis, and renal insufficiency (kidney failure). |
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