A survey on epidemiology of leishmaniasis in Khatam, Iran during 2008-2012

Background: Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease, that due to the incidence, dissemination and scattering throughout different parts of Iran is of paramount importance. This study was carried out with the aim of determining the epidemiology of leishmaniasis cutaneous in Khatam during 2008-2012. Methods: This is a cross-sectional and retrospective study of collected demographic and epidemiological information, related to 760 patients with the disease who underwent treatment in health centers in Khatam during 2008-2012. This information was analyzed using SPSS version 16 software and includes the history of disease outbreak, age, sex, place of residence, number of wounds, wound placement and a history of travel to endemic areas in the past year. Results: The results showed that out of a total number of patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis 460 persons were male (60.5%) and 300 persons were female (39.5%); age mean of patients was 22 ± 1.68. The 0-9 years age group was more susceptible to the disease. The lodging for 525 subjects (69.1%) was listed as village, 224 (29.7%) of them lived in the city and 11 people (1.4%) lived on the fringes of the city. 98.8% of these patients were infected with rural cutaneous leishmaniasis. There were 428 cases of wounds on the hands (56.3%) making it the most common type. Conclusion: The rural leishmaniasis is one of the major health problems of Khatam, and given the high disease incidence in children and farmers, continuing education on the care and control of the disease in the region is of very high importance.