BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Brucella, causative of brucellosis, has some potential virulence factors involved in Brucella replication and its strategies to circumvent the immune response. One of them is the virB gene that encodes the type IV secretion system proteins (T4SS) involved in intracellular replication of organism. Brucella virulence factor A (bvfA), and urease (ure) has also been descri...

BACKGROUND In recent years use of family physicians has been determined as a start point of health system reform to achieve more productive health services. In this study we aimed to assess the cost-efficiency of the implementation of this plan in Fars province, southern Iran. METHODS This cross-sectional descriptive study was done in 2007 in 18 provincial health centers as well as 224 rural ...

BACKGROUND Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a major health problem in Iran in spite of implementation of control program. This infectious disease caused morbidity in less than 27000 people in 2010. This study was set to determine some ecological aspects of sand flies in Fasa district, Fars Province, southern Iran during 2011-2012. METHODS A total of 4792 sand flies were captured by means of sticky ...

BACKGROUND Annually over two million Muslims from across the world converge on Mecca to perform the Hajj pilgrimage. Overcrowding at the Hajj facilitates spread of communicable diseases, especially respiratory infections. The aim of this study was to determine the attack rate of seasonal and pandemic influenza among returning Iranian pilgrims after the 2009 Hajj. METHODS Clinical data and thr...

Drought is natural and climate phenomenon and in fact server as a part of climate in an area and also it has significant environmental ,social ,and economic consequences .drought differs from the other natural disasters from this viewpoint that it s a creeping phenomenon meaning that it progresses little and its difficult to determine the time of its onset and termination .most of the drought d...

The focus of present study was to determine the epidemiological and molecular aspects of different strains of cystic echinococcosis in Fars province, Iran. Liver and lung samples from 410 sheep, 206 goats and 315 cattle were collected. In cattle, the infestation rate was 18.1% (57/315), with 11.1% hepatic cysts and 7.0% pulmonary cysts. Out of all identified cysts, 31.4% of the hepatic and 31.8...

BACKGROUND Anogenital distance (AGD) is a feasible and accepted parameter of exogenous or endogenous androgens effects on development of reproductive system. OBJECTIVES Since there is no report on penile length (PL) and AGD in our region, we investigated these parameters in male newborns in Golestan Province, Iran. PATIENTS AND METHODS In this cross-sectional study, we measured stretched PL...

BACKGROUND Gastrointestinal tract cancer (GI.C) is one of the common cancers in world-wide. The incidence rate of it is different in various geographical regions. This study was performed to assess spatial clusters of the occurrence of GI.C in Fars Province. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, the new cases were 4569 cases from 2001 to 2009. The crude incidence rates were standardized base...

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to research concerning the epidemiology of newborns' galactosemia during 2007-2008 to find out whether screening was necessary for Iranian newborns or not and also what the symptoms of this disease before or after diet were. METHODS The data were collected from 24000 newborn babies from Fars Province, southern Iran. The enzymatic calorimetric test was done ...

BACKGROUND Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ZCL) is endemic in many parts of Iran. Recently its incidence is considerable in different parts of Jahrom district, in Fars Province, southern Iran. The aims of our study were to investigate the prevalence of leishmania infection, and identify and characterize the Leishmania species present, among the rodents by molecular methods in a new endemic fo...