Epidemiology of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis and It’s Relationship With Blood Groups in Bam, 2007

Background & Aims: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a health problem, especially in tropical and subtropical countries. In spite of new scientific developments in recent years, several questions related to this disease have been raised that have still no answer. The objective of this research was to study the epidemiology of CL and its relationship with blood groups in the city of Bam in 2007. Methods: of 3000 suspected CL patients referred to the CL control clinic, 240 patients were randomly selected and after the diagnosis of CL their blood groups and RH factors were determined and recorded in a questionnaire. Similarly 360 volunteers referring to the Blood transfusion center were randomly selected (30 individuols per month) and their blood group and RH factor were determined with a similar method. Data were analyzed by descriptive and analytical statistics and using χ 2  test. Results: Most of the 240 CL patients were in the range group of 16-50 years (65.4%). In whole, 52.2% of the lesions were on hand and 60% of the patients had single lesion and there was no significant difference between two sexes. There was no significant difference between the case and control groups in regard to the frequency of blood groups and RH. After matching of 108 individuals regarding the sex, age and place of residence, in a case-control study, individuals with AB blood group had been infected 1.3 times more than those with other blood groups, although it was not statistically significant. Conclusions: As CL disease is becoming more complex, it is necessary to conduct further clinical basic studies as well as epidemiological cohort observations in endemic areas.