American and Peruvian doctors have stumbled on a new strain of bacteria that causes leptospirosis while studying infectious diseases in the Amazon jungles of Peru.

The new species, Leptospira licerasiae, was discovered by Dr. Joseph Vinetz, professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego's School of Medicine, and colleagues from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia of Lima, Peru

American and Peruvian doctors have stumbled on a new strain of bacteria that causes leptospirosis while studying infectious diseases in the Amazon jungles of Peru.

The new species, Leptospira licerasiae, was discovered by Dr. Joseph Vinetz, professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego's School of Medicine, and colleagues from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia of Lima, Peru

Brazilians are lining up at health centers and medical facilities in the wake of a yellow fever scare. The ailment, an acute viral disease, claimed a third victim from the southern city of Maringa.

According to municipal health officers, 46-year old Almir Rodrigues da Cunha died Wednesday. He may have acquired the ailment after a visit to Caldas Novas, a town in Goias state, where he stayed for the Christmas break

The Health Ministry of Nicaragua on Thursday raised alarm over the outbreak of leptospirosis, a deadly illness prevailing in tropical countries and can be transmitted to human beings by a bacteria present in rat urine.

According to Health Minister Maritza Cuan, 10 people were already killed and 2,700 more cases were reported in some regions of this Central American country

Leptospirosis, also known as seven-day-fever, has taken toll of nine lives in Nicaragua. The waterborne disease, which spread through animal urine, has also sickened more than 1,600 in the country, health officials said Monday.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said Sunday that the bacterial disease was spread by flooding caused by a month of intense rains and category-5 Hurricane Felix. Felix hit northeastern Nicaragua last month