AN EPIDEMIOLOGIC STUDY OF CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIASIS (RESERVOIRS AND VECTORS) IN BORDER VILLAGES OF SARAKHS IN KHORASAN PROVINCE

The term leishmaniasis refers collectively to various clinical syndromes that are caused by obligate intracellular protozoa of the genus Leishmania. In humans, cutaneous, visceral, and mucosal leishmaniasis result from infection of macrophages. The first two mentioned types of leishmaniasis are seen in IR of Iran. There was only one case report of mucosal leishmaniasis reported by Toosi et al from Iran. Annual incidence of all types of leishmaniasis is approximately 600,000, with a prevalence of 12 million, and about 350 million people are at risk of the disease in the world. Many surveys have been carried out on leishmaniasis in Iran. There was no complete information on prevalence rate (PR) of disease, reservoirs, and vectors, especially in geographical distribution of regions of our study. In addition, determination of PR, types of reservoirs and vectors are important and invaluable in descriptive epidemiology as it would be easy to detect vectors and reservoirs early if any changes occurred. When surveys are in concordance with studies of reservoirs and vectors, control measures are implemented successfully.