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  • Leptospirosis

    Leptospirosis claims yet another victim:

    Kaua'i man battling leptospirosis

    A Kaua'i man continues to fight for his life at The Queen's Medical Center nearly five months after he was stricken with leptospirosis.

    State Highways Division laborer Kimo Jardin, 26, lost both legs, his spleen and a large amount of muscle tissue from the virulent bacterial infection, but his mother said yesterday that just in the past week doctors reported he finally appears to be making slow progress toward healing, although his condition remains extremely critical.

    (Honolulu Advertiser 5/26/05)
    I wonder if he knows where and how he might have been exposed? It's just not safe any more to go swimming in the streams, or to drink the water. Auwē!

  • #2
    Re: Leptospirosis

    That's a mean disease! When I was a kid I used to go moss sliding down Cherry Hill in Waialae. Now it's just not safe to venture into these canals and streams anymore. Another childhood joy my kids will never experience. What is this world coming to!
    Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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    • #3
      Re: Leptospirosis

      During my senior year at Hawaii Baptist, a Damien senior died from Lepto after swimming at Kapena Falls, which is just a couple hundred yards downstream from HBA. It was eye-opening for us all, as many of us would make the short trek after school for a cool dip in the fresh water.

      That was 1987. I don't know if "I don't know what this world is coming to" is the right response--I mean, isn't lepto the result of contamination by the urine of some animals (in the Damien boy's case, I was told it was gecko urine)? Seems to me that's the kind of thing that could have happened at any time in our history. Perhaps people died from this in the olden days, too, but nobody knew what it was or where it came from. Anyone?
      But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
      GrouchyTeacher.com

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      • #4
        Re: Leptospirosis

        Ask and ye shall receive:

        "...In the US: Leptospirosis, as a clinical entity, is underdiagnosed and underreported. The reported annual incidence ranged from 0.02-0.04 cases per 100,000 persons from 1985-1994. In 1994, 38 leptospirosis cases were reported nationwide, and the Council of Sate and Territorial Epidemiologists recommended removing leptospirosis from the list of notifiable diseases.
        Of those 38, Hawaii, which reports the highest annual occurrence rate, had 22 confirmed cases. Between June 1998 and February 1999, Hawaii reported 405 suspected cases of leptospirosis; 61 of those cases were confirmed.

        Case numbers varied markedly from island to island within the state. Incidence rates ranged from 2.3-40.2 cases per 100,000 persons, with the highest numbers of cases on Kauai and Hawaii.

        These reported cases contrast starkly with the prevalence rates found under active surveillance. Using active surveillance measures, Hawaii researchers projected the state's true local incidence at approximately 128 cases per 100,000 persons. Major risk factors identified in Hawaii include the use of water catchment systems, wild pig hunting, and the presence of skin wounds. ..."

        from http://www.emedicine.com/PED/topic1298.htm

        Miulang
        "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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        • #5
          Re: Leptospirosis

          scary yeah. I couldn't help but go in, was so hot after the hike. tried not to get my eyes wet or swallow any water. now I think I never going chance it again, sad. bunch of us kids used to go in the aquaducts and swim in the reservoirs way back when. memories of "bubbleland".
          Attached Files
          this space for rent

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          • #6
            Re: Leptospirosis

            It's not so much the gecko urine but more so from the wild pigs I'm told.

            What this world is coming to is the things that made being a kid so much fun is slowly disappearing like moss sliding, mud sliding down Tantalus, heck even the parks department wants to curb sliding down the grass knolls at Kakaako State park with cardboard!

            The year I stopped moss sliding, I remember going into the canal above Wilson Elementary School in Waialae Nui Valley and seeing for the first time, orange moss instead of the usual dark green stuff. After that day that's all we saw was this puke orange moss and we never did go back in again.

            Ahh those hana butta days when things were cheap and no worry's that was when being a kid was good. Now it's all TV and Nintendo. It's safe from leptospirosis but can you imagine today's kids saying when they were younger, what kind of childhood experience can they relate to?
            Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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            • #7
              Re: Leptospirosis

              not only lepto but safety? I hope the guy missing from manoa falls is found a-ok. doesn't look good though. last time I went was safe, an HPD officer and his family was there and playing in the water too.
              this space for rent

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              • #8
                Re: Leptospirosis

                What I find kind of strange is how much pigs, rats or geckos does it take to contaminate a body of water? I find it hard to believe a rat or two urinating in a stream to forever contaminate it.

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                • #9
                  Re: Leptospirosis

                  According to the Health Department's fact sheet, the bacteria are common in lots of wild animals. I guess if the pigs and the rats and the mongoose are infected, that could be a lot of potential sources. But just because a stream has a lepto warning sign on it doesn't mean that it's certain death to go in. I often see local kids ignoring the signs and swimming in streams anyway, and I'm guessing that they usually don't get sick. Probably the bacteria levels in the water go up and down, depending on season and how many infected critters have recently been near it.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Leptospirosis

                    You also pretty much need to have an open wound, according to a doctor I once asked. I'd been hiking Manoa Falls (I mean past the first falls and up to the next several--you know, beyond the sign that says don't go beyond this sign) and the next morning was unusually weak and fatigued. The doc said if I didn't have any open wounds, I probably didn't have to worry about it.
                    But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
                    GrouchyTeacher.com

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                    • #11
                      Re: Leptospirosis

                      today's paper reports the guy was found at the hospital. maybe falling rocks? good point about cuts / wounds. I don't want any level infection. but will probably still take a dip sometime with attention to recent rains or other factors.
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                      • #12
                        Re: Leptospirosis

                        Man, we used to swim at Maunawili falls all the time! Never got sick then. Are we more at risk now then we were then? I hate having to weigh the fun of swimming in a "water-hole" verses the health of my kids, but I can tell you now, my kids are always going to come first.

                        If there is a chance that they are going to get a cut from a branch on the way to go swimming, that may lead to losing a spleen and legs, it is a high price to pay for an afternoon swim.

                        From what I read though, it doesn't even have to be from swimming! You can get it from the mud on the trail or even from eating those trailside fruits that have (yuck...) been pee-d on. That'll make you think twice before reaching for that raspberry (technically a thimbleberry).

                        Slick
                        Sleep is a poor substitute for caffeine!

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                        • #13
                          Re: Leptospirosis

                          We used to swim and play in the rivers along the Hamakua Coast while kids in the 50s and 60s (long childhood) and never heard of Lepto. The plantations were in full swing at the time spreaying those nasty herbicides, rat bait, ferterlizers, etc. and life was good. I'm sure we were exposed to pig, gecko, rat or whatever urine in the water but it didn't bother us. Maybe our immune system was a lot better because we weren't so isolated from all the latest medical scares we hear about every day these days. Imagine, green guavas or green mangoes vinegar/salt/shoyu and bagong or crayfish on an open fire, washed by stream water? We had cut feet, scraped shins, puka heads, etc. while playing/swimming in the streams but nobody died from it.
                          Many of us are now in our 60s and still going strong.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Leptospirosis

                            Originally posted by craigwatanabe
                            That's a mean disease! When I was a kid I used to go moss sliding down Cherry Hill in Waialae. Now it's just not safe to venture into these canals and streams anymore. Another childhood joy my kids will never experience. What is this world coming to!
                            Wow. Moss sliding! My friends and I had every viable ditch and canal between HI Kai and Kahala wired, Cherry Hill included. It's a crying shame that such fun is no longer safe. Although it was only marginally more safe back in the day, I suppose. I remember needing stitches on more than one occasion after sliding over a broken 40oz of Mickey's Lager.

                            My friends and I stopped going to Kapena Falls after the most recent Leptospirosis fatality. Mostly because we all had various and persistent scrapes and cuts from surfing, skateboarding etc. Another era ended.
                            Don't be mean,
                            try to help.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Leptospirosis

                              It could be that it's not that the per-individual risk of contracting lepto has gone up, it's that there are a lot more people in the islands these days getting exposed, so the overall number of cases per year is more than in the old days. And I'm also guessing that the medical diagnoses are more thorough these days, as is the news reporting. So we hear about all the lepto cases these days, where before maybe we only heard about a fraction of them.

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