Abstract:
Leptospirosis is emerging as a major public health threat in Sri Lanka. Though there are gaps in
research in the field of leptospirosis in Sri Lanka, an increase in research output has been
observed since 2008. In contrast to research in other major infectious diseases, investigations in
the field of leptospirosis are hampered by the unavailability of diagnostic facilities within the
country. Because of this resource limitation, it is difficult to conduct research based on
confirmed cases in the Sri Lankan setting. On reviewing published literature during the period
2007-2012, it was obvious that proper case definitions were not used in most published studies.
The purpose of this letter is to provide an overview of internationally accepted diagnostic case
definitions for leptospirosis based on World Health Organizations’ Leptospirosis Epidemiology
Reference Group consensus1
. The use of these case definitions in future studies will be helpful
for all Sri Lankan researchers to understand and interpret their data.
