Andréia C. Santos

TL;DR: Deficiencies in the sanitation infrastructure where slum inhabitants reside were found to be environmental sources of Leptospira transmission, indicating that effective prevention of leptospirosis may need to address the social factors that produce unequal health outcomes among slum residents, in addition to improving sanitation.

TL;DR: It is found that slum residents had high risk (>3% per year) for acquiring a Leptospira infection and effective prevention of leptospirosis will therefore require interventions that address the infrastructure deficiencies that contribute to repeated exposures among slum inhabitants.

TL;DR: It is suggested that topographic factors such as household elevation and inadequate drainage increase risk by promoting contact with mud and suggest that the soil-water interface serves as the environmental reservoir for spillover transmission.

TL;DR: An easily applicable prediction score based on rat infestation markers, which identified households with highest infection risk, is developed, which may be an effective risk stratification strategy for targeting control measures in slum settings of high leptospirosis transmission.

TL;DR: Four serologic assays for leptospirosis had sensitivities of 72 to 88% and specificities of 88 to 100% in the setting of highly endemic urban transmission, indicating that assays using enzyme-linked immunosorbency and rapid formats may be used as alternatives to the microscopic agglutination test for diagnosing urban leptosis.