Brief report: Leptospirosis after flooding of a university campus--Hawaii, 2004.

On November 19, 2004, the Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH) received a report that a University of Hawaii professor aged 56 years had been hospitalized with suspected leptospirosis after cleaning his flooded laboratory. On October 31, heavy rains had caused an adjacent stream to overflow its banks and flood the campus. Persons exposed to fresh water or mud contaminated by the urine of animals infected with the spirochete Leptospira interrogans can have systemic illness if the leptospires enter the body through broken skin or mucous membranes. This report describes the subsequent investigation by HDOH, assisted by CDC, which highlights the importance of maintaining clinical suspicion for leptospirosis after flooding in areas where the illness is endemic, even in well-developed urban settings.