favism in mazandaran, north of iran

favism is an acute hemolytic anemia which occurs in people who have (g6pd deficiency. in iran g6pd deficiency is prevalent in the coast of caspian sea. the main aim of our study was to investigate the prevalence of favism in mazandaran province in north of iran. our main source of data was the tiles of patients’ who had been hospitalized in three different children’s hospital in different cities (babolsar and gorgan). results showed that favism occurs in may which is the harvest time of broad beans in mazandaran province. in gorgan , favism occurs one week earlier than babolsar. the ratio of male to female patients in the province was 2~:t, the majority of the patients were villagers. approximately 70% of the patients were below 5 years old. the signs and symptoms would appear in the patients 1-3 day after eating broad beans. no significant relation was observed between blood groups and g6pd deficiency. no death was reported in the three cities.