Spatial Analyses of the Relation between Rodent's Active Burrows and Incidence of Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Golestan Province, Northeastern of Iran

BACKGROUND Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) is one of the most important vector-borne diseases in Iran. Wild Rodents play as a reservoir. The main aim of this study was to determine spatial analyses of the relationship between rodent's active burrows and Incidence of ZCL in Golestan Province, north east of Iran. METHODS The cross-sectional study was conducted in 59 rural districts in Golestan Province. Spatial distribution of rodent's active burrows, human cases of ZCL and Incidence of disease were collected, using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The relationship of them were analyzed by Sperman test, SPSS software version No.13. RESULTS The most number of rodents' active burrows, human positive cases (100 persons) and high Incidence of disease (35/1000) were observed in Korand rural district of Gonbad-e Kavoos County. There was significant correlation between the number of rodents active burrows with Incidence rate of disease (0.470, P< 0.001) as well as the number of cases in each districts (0.465, P< 0.001), There is high correlation between higher Incidence rate and human positive cases in districts with number of rodents' active burrows. CONCLUSION Vicinity of wild rodents' burrows to villages plays an important role in transmission of ZCL to humans.