The Epidemiology of Anthroponotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ACL) in Larestan, 2006-2008

Objective: Leishmaniasis is one of the six important tropical diseases which  world health organization recommended study and research aspects of its. This study investigated the status of Antroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) in Larestan.

Methods: This was cross sectional- descriptive study. Information were extracted from the epidemiological survey forms of  patient which includes age, sex, the number of sores, location of lesion, place of residence and kind of building and then Analyzed  by SPSS 15 software.

Results: From776 patients 327(42.1%) were male and 449 (57.9%) were female. The highest prevalence was in the age group of 0-9 years (43.9%) and the lowest was in 60+, 33 (4.3%).Mean of age and its standard deviation respectively were 18.27, 17.8 with the range of 1-84. 575(74.1%) of the patients were rural and the 201(25.9%) of them were urban. More than 484(62.4%) of the patients had more than one sore. 406(52.3%) were living in newly- built houses and 47.7 were living in old house. The high risk parts of body were the hands. 301(58.4%) of patients had sores on their hands.  

Conclusion: This study showed that sex pattern of disease differs with other area and children under 10 years old are most at risk. Also Leishmaniasis was mostly seen in rural areas and prevention efforts must be combined with education for groups at risk.