Leptospirosis outbreak across Thailand

In July 2008 Thailand's Public Health Ministry warned all 76 provinces across the country to be on alert for the emergence of leptospirosis. The Ministry reported over 580 recent cases, resulting in 15 deaths. Leptospirosis, also known as canicola fever, hemorrhagic jaundice, infectious jaundice, mud fever, spirochetal jaundice, swamp fever, swineherd's disease, caver's flu or sewerman's flu, is a bacterial infection resulting from exposure to the Leptospira interrogans bacterium. There is an acute form of human infection known as Weil's disease, where the patient suffers from jaundice, though this term is often (incorrectly) used to describe any case of infection.