Types of Weil's Disease

The Stages of Weil’s Disease

One of the challenges in recognising and hence diagnosing Weil’s Disease, is that in many cases the symptoms are not noticed or are mistaken for symptoms of other conditions: fever, headaches, a sore throat and aching muscles can be synonymous with a heavy cold, the ‘flu, or just feeling run down and tired. In many cases these symptoms go away without treatment and so the disease is not recognised or diagnosed.

Leptospirosis – the bacterial infection that can develop into Weil’s Disease – usually occurs in two distinct phases:

Phase 1 – within a week or two of the infection occurring, symptoms such as fever, severe muscle aches, a sore throat and a headache arrive quite suddenly. By the third or fourth day the sufferer’s eyes are likely to become very red, and many people develop a cough; sometimes alongside chest pain, and sometimes bringing up blood.

If successfully treated with appropriate antibiotics most people will recover from this phase within about a week, although they may suffer from fatigue and depression for a quite a long time afterwards.

Phase 2 – sadly in some cases Phase 1 is just the beginning. In Phase 2 many of the initial symptoms will reappear; this is as a result of the inflammation caused by the immune system trying to eliminate the bacteria from the body but depending on the organs which the bacteria has reached, the outcome from Phase 2 can be potentially life-threatening.

It can cause jaundice; a yellowing of the eyes and skin caused by damage to the liver, as well as kidney failure and anaemia. Many sufferers experience nose-bleeds or cough up blood, and bleeding may also occur within tissues in the skin, lungs and even the digestive tract.

Most people still recover from this phase of the disease, but the risk of death is significantly higher if it makes changes to mental function, brings on kidney or respiratory failure, or if internal bleeding occurs.

Around one third of those who suffer from the second phase of the disease may experience chronic symptoms for several years after the initial infection; characterised by weakness, fatigue, muscle pain and headaches.

There are over twenty different types of Leptospira bacteria, and each one can result in different reactions in people depending on a range of factors including the strength and volume of the initial exposure, but also the age and strength of the person infected: a small dose in a strong, healthy person is likely to have a smaller effect than the same exposure to someone who is elderly, frail, or suffers from other conditions.