Morbidity, surveillance and epidemiology of scorpion sting, cutaneous leishmaniasis and pediculosis capitis in Bandar-mahshahr County, Southwestern Iran

Abstract

Objective: To study epidemiologic features of scorpion stings, patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis and pediculosis capitis cases in Bandar-mahshahr County, Southwestern Iran, during 2008-2009. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted on the referred individuals with stung scorpions, pediculosis capitis and cutaneous leishmaniasis attending health centers from Bandar-mahshahr County in 2008. The patients' medical records with epidemiologic and demographic data were collected. Using SPSS, we have attempted to summarize statistics, namely frequencies and percentages. Results: A total of 135 scorpion stings patients were studied. Of these, 34.8% were female and 65.2% male. Most of the Scorpion stings were recorded in the 21-30 year age group (37.8%). A total of 82 cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis were studied in this assignment that all cases have been reported from urban health centers. Considering number of wounds on the body the maximum of the patients (37.6%) had only one lesion. In this study, 12 referred patients from the health centers were studied for pediculosis capitis. According to obtained information one of the patients was male and 11 patients were female. Conclusions: Some important measures, such as education, health promotion and public participation should be implemented for preventing of these diseases.

Keywords

• Epidemiology
• Scorpion sting
• Cutaneous leishmaniasis
• Pediculosis capitis
• Iran