Canine leptospirosis surveillance : a one health framework to improve Puerto Rico leptospirosis surveillance system
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Meeting name
Sponsors
Date
Journal Title
Format
Other
Subject
Abstract
Background: Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease that has been a public health issue worldwide for many years. The disease is commonly found in tropical and subtropical areas. In the Caribbean, leptospirosis remains endemic, particularly in the island of Puerto Rico, where a surge of cases is seen after natural disasters such as tropical storms and hurricanes. Puerto Rico has a leptospirosis surveillance system that closely monitors disease trends among humans. As of 2024, most cases on the island were associated with exposure to infected animals, nonetheless, the system lacks specifications on which animals the infected cases were exposed to, primarily the most common domestic animal reservoir, such as dogs. Objectives: To evaluate Puerto Rico current leptospirosis surveillance system and to propose a recommendation for implementing a One Health surveillance system on the island that includes canine leptospirosis. Methods: A systematic literature review of canine leptospirosis surveillance systems in the United States was conducted. The search was done across databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect, University of Missouri) and grey literature platforms (Google Scholar, government agencies, public health departments) for the last 10 years (2015 -2025). After the screening process, four canine surveillance system publications were retrieved from public health departments, and six research publications were retrieved from electronic databases. Following CDC guidelines for evaluating surveillance systems, a quality assessment was conducted of the four retrieved publications on canine leptospirosis surveillance systems. The six research publications were utilized to support the idea of implementing a canine leptospirosis surveillance system in Puerto Rico. Findings: The quality assessment findings showed that three surveillance systems followed the CDC guidelines. The analysis and comparison of the Puerto Rico leptospirosis surveillance system demonstrated that Puerto Rico is capable of implementing a canine leptospirosis surveillance system on the island.
Table of Contents
DOI
PubMed ID
Degree
Thesis Department
Rights
OpenAccess.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.