Magnitude and Associated Factors of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis; in Mekelle City, Ayder Referral Hospital, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia, 2014

Abstract

Introduction; Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease strongly associated with poverty with an adverse health effects over the poorest populations of the world. The disease is endemic in 88 countries, 72 of them are developing countries including Ethiopia. It has been estimated that 12million people are infected and 350 million people are at risk with the annual incidence of new cases is estimated between 1.5-2million. Ethiopia has seen new outbreaks in areas previously not known to be endemic often with co-infection by the human immunodeficiency virus with rates reaching 5.6% of the cases and other associated risk factors. As best of my knowledge similar study was not conducted specifically in Mekelle even though other study conducted to the whole region, Tigray. Thus, this preliminary study concerns to determine the magnitude and associated factors of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Mekelle city.Objectives; To assess the prevalence and associated factors of cutaneous leishmaniasis on patients who visit dermatology out patient department in Ayder referral hospital, Mekelle, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Methods and subjects; Institutional based cross sectional study was conducted on 478 study population from Ayder referral hospital by using systematic random sampling technique. Data entry and analysis was conducted by using SPSS v-20. The association between different variables in relation to the outcome variable was measured by odds ratio with 95% confidence interval. All variables with P<0.05 in the bivariate analysis were included in the multivariate model, accepting P ≤0.05 as the inclusion level for the independent variables. Result; Prevalence of cutaneouse leishmaniasis in this study was nearly six percent (5.6%) with 99% response rate. Sex [AOR 2.1(95% CI); (0.15, 0.79)], income source being farmer [AOR 2.1(95% CI); (0.00.0.248)], location of the home near to both farm and gorge [AOR 10.1 (95% CI); (0.00, 0.574)] and presence of the hyrax [AOR 1.1(95% CI); (0.00, 0.60)] were statistically significant to the presence of cutaneouse leishmaniasis in Mekelle city. Conclusion The overall prevalence of cutaneouse leishmaniasis in the study area was relatively high (5.6%) having a statistical significant association with sex, income source (farmer), location of the residence near to farm land and gorge and the presence of hyrax. Thus, a continuous health education and awareness creation about the disease, factors and preventive methods of cutaneouse should be sought.