Some of epidemiological criteria associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis in Tikrit city, Salah Al-Din province, Iraq

Abstract

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is endemic in Iraq and represents a real threat to public health and causes skin lesions. The current study was aimed to investigation of epidemiological aspects of cutaneous leishmaniasis infection in Tikrit city and in the districts and sub-districts around the city center. The current study was conducted for people with cutaneous leishmaniasis that attending Salah Al-Din General Hospital for treatment, during the period from 14 September to 30 December 2020. The study included 100 cases of clinically diagnosed as Cutaneous leishmaniasis and confirmed by show of Leishmania parasites on smears from lesions. The results showed that the majority of infections appeared in December (71.00%), males are more infected (51.00%) compared with females (49.00%). The age range was from ≤ 2 to 60 years, the majority of patients were infants in the age group ≤ 2 years (40.00%). Higher infection occurred in the districts and sub-districts around the city center (73.00%) compared with city center (27.00%). The results showed that the majority of patients had dry type lesions (67.00%), while wet ulcers were present in 33.00%. Also, the prevalence of infection was higher in face (44.23%), whereas the lower prevalence was recorder for the lower limbs (17.31%).