Another concern about leech bite is other bacterial pathogens like Burkholderia pseudomallei and Leptospira interrogans may take this opportunity to enter our body and cause melioidosis or leptospirosis. This is why I used lime juice (acid to lower the pH may kill some microorganisms) and/or drinking water (reduce the microorganism numbers) to wash the bited wound and then stop the bleeding after that, although there is no report about Burkholderia pseudomallei infection or leptospirosis after leech bite but preventive mearsure is very important in the field.

Teo T P