Epidemiologic profile of oriental sore caused by Leishmania parasites in a new endemic focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis, southern Iran

Moosa Khosravani, Mohammad Djaefar Moemenbellah-Fard, Mehdi Sharafi, Azam Rafat-Panah

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is the first and most important vector-borne zoonotic disease transmitted by sand flies in Iran. As a parasitic disease in the Old World, it is a complex zoonosis with multiple vertebrate hosts and arthropod vectors of pathogenic flagellate protozoan in the genus of Leishmania in different parts of its range. Phlebotomine sand flies are proven as vectors of this parasite which can be transmitted through the bite of an infected female sand fly distributed in almost all parts of Iran. This research performed on all CL patients as that were registered into special forms by physicians and experts during the study period 2006-2013 in the county town of Fasa, Iran. Data were analyzed by Chi square test using SPSS 17 statistics software. Overall, 1,908 patients (59.18 %) lived in rural and 1,316 (40.82 %) lived in urban areas. All ages were between 1 and ≥30 year. The most frequent age group was ≥20 years (54.6 %). Sex ratio of patients was almost 1:1 (1,561; 48.42 % male vs. 1,663; 51.58 % female). Most of them (66.84 %) had wet lesions and those with dry lesions were less frequent (33.16 %). There was a significant difference between the frequencies of these two groups (P < 0.05). Hand ulcers were the most prevalent part of body (43.24 %). The highest prevalence rate (35.14 %) of lesions occurred in autumn. The unstable trend of this disease in different years and its relatively high disease burden affecting all age groups in Fasa with respect to other counties in Iran showed that it was most likely an endemic disease in this region.