study of status and knowledge of female student about cutaneous leishmaniasis in abuzid abad, kashan, in 2007

study of status and knowledge of female student about cutaneous leishmaniasis in abuzid abad, kashan, in 2007     dehghani r [1] , moosavi ga [2] , abbasi f [3] , novrozi s [4] ,farahani m [5] , hooshyar h [6] *    received: 19 feb, 2011 accepted: 20 june, 2011   abstract   background & aims: cutaneous leishmaniasis is a protozoan parasitic disease that is prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions. it is the most prevalent parasitic diseases after malaria in iran. kashan is an endemic region in isfahan province that has a high prevalence of it. this study was carried out in order to determine the status of leishmaniasis in kashan and determine the knowledge of female students about cutaneous leishmaniasis in 2007.  materials & methods: a descriptive study was carried out on all female students (n=520) for two months since nov 2007. the data were collected by a researcher-made questionnaire which was validated by experts. the students were examined for acute ulcer or leischman scar. the data were analyzed by spss, chi-square test, and exact fisher test.  results: of 520 individuals, 381(73.2%) were previously infected by leishmania (380 individual had scar and one had acute ulcer) 139 students had no history of infection. totally 284(74.8%) ones were treated and in 96(25.2%) individual scars were without any treatment. the majority of the subjects (59.8%) had a good knowledge about life cycle and prevention of leishmaniasis and 210 ones (40.4%) had no knowledge about leishmaniasis. they incorrectly responded to evaluation criteria. conclusion: this study showed that leishmaniasis has been very prevalent in the last years and the majority of students were infected, however their knowledge about the disease is moderate or low. an education program is necessary to prevent cutaneous leishmaniasis in kashan.  keywords: cutaneous leishmaniasis, knowledge, students     address: department of parasitology, school of medicine, kashan university of medical sciences, kashan, iran tel (+98)9133623292   email: [email protected]   [1] associate professor, faculty of health sciences, kashan university of medical sciences , kashan, iran   [2] instructor, faculty of health sciences, kashan university of medical sciences , kashan, iran   [3] environmental health expert, kashan university of medical sciences, kashan, iran   [4] environmental health expert, kashan university of medical sciences, kashan, iran   [5] environmental health expert, kashan university of medical sciences, kashan, iran   [6] associate professor, faculty of medicine, kashan university of medical sciences, kashan, iran (corresponding author )