Barbados has recorded 41 cases and three deaths from leptospirosis for the year, making it the deadliest year for the disease since 1999.
These statistics mean that the number of cases have more than tripled from 2010, where there were just 12 recorded cases and no deaths.
This was revealed by Dr Karen Springer, Senior Medical Officer of Health (North), during a Press briefing on the status of leptospirosis at the Ministry of Health’s Frank Walcott Building yesterday.
Springer pointed out that although the three reported deaths were “in keeping with what we would expect,” the 41 cases were not, saying that “they had exceeded what we would have normally expected”.
She said the majority of persons infected with the disease were between the ages of 20 and 60, and that 84 per cent of them were males.
Read the full story in today’s DAILY NATION.
