6 Leptospirosis in France and its overseas territories is not significantly associated with international travel, most cases being autochthonous.7 In other industrialized nations, travel and recreational freshwater exposures are becoming an important source of leptospirosis.2 In the UK, over half of leptospirosis cases were acquired abroad, predominantly in tropical and subtropical countries.8 In Israel, 83% of cases in 2008 were travel related.9 In Germany, traveling abroad has been identified

as the single most important exposure risk in patients suffering leptospirosis.10 Most reported cases of travel-related leptospirosis have been described in outbreak settings, and sporadic travel-associated cases are rare.9 Therefore, the diagnosis of leptospirosis was not first suspected Ku-0059436 purchase in our patient, who presented a dengue-like syndrome. Leptospirosis may manifest itself as undifferentiated febrile and sometimes eruptive disease in the returned traveler, and a high level of

suspicion is required to make the diagnosis. Freshwater exposure, even brief, if reported by the patient, may be helpful in this context. Pancreatic involvement and trigeminal neuralgia were two unusual delayed features of leptospirosis in the case reported here. The clinical and laboratory diagnosis of acute pancreatitis is controversial in patients with leptospirosis. Pancreatitis is a rare complication of leptospirosis associated with poor prognosis. Most patients with severe leptospirosis and pancreatic involvement have clinical evidence of jaundice, and hyperamylasemia (and maybe hyperlipasemia) Adenylyl cyclase can be present Entinostat research buy in leptospirosis infection because of renal impairment.11 Neurological manifestations are seen in about 10%–15% of patients with leptospiral infection and often remain unrecognized.12 To our knowledge, trigeminal neuralgia has not been described in patients suffering from leptospirosis. Although we cannot rule out the possibility

that these two conditions occurred concomitantly purely by coincidence, we believe that trigeminal neuralgia is a potential clinical feature of leptospirosis. Given the potentially fatal course of this illness, travelers to endemic areas should be warned to avoid submersion in and consumption of river water. In febrile returned travelers exposed to freshwater with compatible clinical and biological features, pre-emptive antibiotic treatment before diagnosis confirmation of leptospirosis should be discussed. The authors state that they have no conflicts of interest to declare. “
“Studies of in-flight emergencies estimates that the death rate in commercial passengers is low, about 0.31 to 0.34 per million passengers, and that about 70% of these are due to cardiovascular events.[1] Nonetheless, such statistics mean little when one has volunteered to be the good Samaritan and faces caring for an ill passenger.