an epidemiologic study of kala azar among the children admitted in yasuj beheshti hospital (1375-1378)

introduction & objective:visceral leishmaniasis (kala azar), a systemic infectious and life threatening disease of childhood, can be easily diagnosed and treated provided that there is enough knowledge about it otherwise, 90 –95% of patients may die due to severe, acute complications such as bleeding and opportunist infections. following the incubation period and onset of clinical manifestations, the disease exhibits itself in the form of recumbent regular fever, weight loss, weakness, edema, anemia and hepato splenomegaly.although the disease is potentially fatal, it is preventable and curable. this study aims at determining the distribution and clinical manifestations of kala azar among the admitted child patients in yasuj shahid beheshti hospital. materials & methods: this retrospective and descriptive research was carried out on 57 patients, admitted in pediatric ward of the hospital during 1375-1378. demographic information and clinical manifestations were obtained from files through simple sampling and analyzed using spss. results: this study showed that the majority of patients (66.7 %) were male. the average age of the patients was 2.67 ± 1.86 years. the highest rate of the disease (24.5%) belonged to yasuj. most cases (43.3%) occurred in spring time and the fewest cases in winter. the commonest clinical manifestations were fever (84.2%), splenomegaly (77.2%) and hepatomegaly (75.4%). conclusion: taking into account the findings of the study, it seams necessary to carry out a screening study on children living in the regions susceptible to the disease because of climatic and geographical conditions. in this way, prevention and treatment can be facilitated.