Survey on Epidemiological Status and Incidence Rate of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Abadan County, Khuzestan Province, Southwestern Iran

Cutaneous Lieshmaniasis (CL) has been considered as a large hygienic challenge, and the epidemiological studies have been useful in controlling this problem, and also taking prevention stages. Khuzestan Province is one of the common foci of the wet or rural zoonotic CL in Iran. Due to the lack of data about the epidemiology and prevalence of CL in Abadan County (30 degrees 16'N 48 degrees 34'E), this study was conducted in this area within 2011-2015. This descriptive-analytical study was based on 179 cases of CL submitted to the medical and health centers of Abadan County (30 degrees 42'02''N 49 degrees 49'53''E) during the past years. The study was done by extracting the demographic and epidemiologic data from a standard information questionnaire as well as analyzing the study data via SPSS software with chi-square and T tests. Demographic information-epidemiologic features, such as the number and location of lesions on the body, job, month, season, age, gender was collected. The patients were diagnosed by direct microscopic examination of the samples and clinical information. All ethical issues were also addressed. The average incidence rate was reported to be 0,15 / 1000 person. The results revealed that the number of the infected cases in Abadan was 179 people during the study. The most frequent age group was 21-30 years old (24.6%). Meanwhile, about 54.7% of CL patients were male and 45.3% were female. Housekeepers had the highest incidence (29.1%) of CL. The analysis of the lesions on the different parts of the body showed that 24.3% of the lesions occurred on the hand, 20.1% on the foot, 14.5% on the hand as well foot, and 11.7% on the face. The maximum number of CL cases was reported in the autumn with 34.1%. Most of the cases were seen in October (14.5%) and November (12.3%). About 59.2% of the patients had one ulcer. The findings showed an increasing and decreasing trend of the incidence and prevalence rate of CL over the period study in this area. Also, CL has been remaining a health threat in the future. Therefore, it is recommended that the regional authorities pay more attention to control the spread of the disease.