CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIASIS IN PRIMARY-SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE SOUTH-EASTERN IRANIAN CITY OF BAM, 1994-95

Between August 1994 and July 1995 11 517 primary school children aged 6-11 years in the south-eastern Iranian city of Barn, comprising 5560 (48.3%) girls and 5957 (51.7%) boys, were examined for the presence of active lesions or scars of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). There was a trend towards increasing prevalence with age, the prevalence being 10. 7% in 6-year-old and 20% in greater than or equal to 11-year-old child ren. Overall, 1.3% of the children had active lesions and 14.3% had sc ars. There was no significant difference between the sexes in the prev alence of active lesions and/or scars, Of the children examined, 54 (0 .5%) had leishmaniasis recidivans: 19 girls (35.2%) and 35 boys (64.8% ). The number of active lesions or scars per child ranged from 1 to 10 . The majority (82.3%) had I lesion, 12.4% had 2 lesions, and 5.3% had greater than or equal to 3. The average number of lesions was 1.08 (1 .03 in girls and 1.18 in boys). The face was the part of the body most commonly involved (63.6%), followed by the hands (20.9%), legs (12.8% ) and other parts of the body (2.7%). Examination of isolates from 14 children revealed that in 13 (92.9%) the causal organism was Leishmani a tropica and in the other (7.1%) L major. The survey indicates that t he geographical distribution of CL is far wider than previously though t. It also shows that Bam is a suitable area for a vaccine field trial .