The first reported case of Leptospirosis in Atlantic Canada was diagnosed at Dartmouth General Hospital, and now that diagnosis and treatment will be chronicled in a respected national journal.
Dr. Ahmed Ghaly is an Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases Physician at Dartmouth General. He says the patient was a 16 year-old who had recently returned from Jamaica with a fever and sore throat. This quickly progressed into a severe infection requiring admission to the ICU. His liver and kidneys were affected, and he was in severe pain.
“We did treat him with antibiotics and thankfully he began to recover even before we had confirmation of the diagnosis,” says Dr. Ghaly.
Leptospirosis is a disease often found in tropical climates, contracted from contaminated water sources.
“It’s not something that you would commonly see unless you’re in an area with high travel,” says Dr. Ghaly.
The team at Dartmouth General Hospital sent samples to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, signaling the patient’s travel history.
“Once the confirmation of the diagnosis came in, we knew we were on the right track and completed the course of antibiotics,” says Dr. Ghaly. “The lesson is to keep an open mind even though it’s something that’s incredibly rare.”
Due to the rarity of this case, Dr. Ghaly and residents Dr. Brandon Persaud and Dr. Bailey Burrell submitted a manuscript to JAMMI (Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Canada), documenting the diagnosis and management at Dartmouth General Hospital. That article will be published in an upcoming journal, with publication fees supported by the Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation.
For Dr. Ghaly, this reflects the fact that Dartmouth General is more than just a community hospital.
“I grew up in Dartmouth, this city is home to me,” says Dr. Ghaly. “I remember coming to this hospital when I was a child and it was a very different hospital then. It’s quite amazing to see how far it’s come, not only in terms of the infrastructure but in terms of the doctors here and their specialties. We are seeing more and more patients, and rare cases, and we have the doctors here to make that diagnosis and treat.”
