Eyelid cutaneous leishmaniasis: A case report

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is the most common parasitic disease transmitted by vectors in Iran. CL is endemic in many urban and rural parts of Iran and usually caused by two species of Leishmania as L. major and L. tropica transmitted to humans from parasite reservoirs by the bite of female sandflies. We report a case of ocular leishmaniasis with eyelid involvement presentation. The patient was a 70-yr-old housewife woman referred to Health Care Center in city of Kashan, central Iran in 2012. The disease was diagnosed by direct smear, culture, and PCR from the lesion. PCR was positive for L. major. Her lesion was treated with systemic meglumine antimonate (Glucantime) (20 mg/kg/day) for 20 days. © 2017, Iranian Journal of Public Health. All rights reserved

An epidemiological study of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Kashan (2007-2008)

Introduction: Leishmaniasis is a parasitological disease, which is common between human and animals. This disease cause always serious health problems for the human communities. This disease is prevalent in many parts of the world. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a prevalent parasitological disease with diverse clinical manifestations in Iran. It is an important health problem in many parts of Iran as well and its incidence has doubled over the last decade. This study was designed to determine the epidemiology of CL in Kashan during 2007-2008. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study in which 5098 persons were randomly selected in thirteen rural and urban districts of Kashan. The disease was diagnosed based on clinical examination and microscopic observation of the parasite in the ulcer site. The patient's information such as age, sex, job, number and sites of ulcer(s) or scar(s), date and place of the ulcer, and results of clinical examination and laboratory tests were recorded. Data analysis was performed using statistical Ki-square test. Results: The prevalence rate of disease in 5089 inhabitants studied was 6.4. One hundred and three persons (2) had active ulcers and 223 persons (4.4) had scar. Fifty three out of 200(26.5) infected male suffering from CL, and fifty out of 126 (39.7) infected female had active ulcer (P=0.013) The highest frequency and the least infected age groups were observed in 20-29 years old patients with a rate of 23.3 and 0-9 years old with the rate of 7.8, respectively. 49.5 of the infected cases were under 30 years old. 64.1 of the patients had one and 35.9 had two or more ulcers. The most common location of ulcers were on hands (46.6) and then on feet, on face and on the other parts of the body. 75.8 of the patients were infected in Kashan city. The estimated rate for CL incidence was approximately 37.6 cases in 100000 people in Kashan during 2007-2008 Conclusion: The prevalence and incidence rate of CL are higher than expected rate in Kashan city. Such a high prevalence and incident rate is alarming and require control and prevention measures. Further epidemiological investigations of disease particularly CL are suggested

Seluge++: A Secure Over-the-Air Programming Scheme in Wireless Sensor Networks

Over-the-air dissemination of code updates in wireless sensor networks have been researchers’ point of interest in the last few years, and, more importantly, security challenges toward the remote propagation of code updating have occupied the majority of efforts in this context. Many security models have been proposed to establish a balance between the energy consumption and security strength, having their concentration on the constrained nature of wireless sensor network (WSN) nodes. For authentication purposes, most of them have used a Merkle hash tree to avoid using multiple public cryptography operations. These models mostly have assumed an environment in which security has to be at a standard level. Therefore, they have not investigated the tree structure for mission-critical situations in which security has to be at the maximum possible level (e.g., military applications, healthcare). Considering this, we investigate existing security models used in over-the-air dissemination of code updates for possible vulnerabilities, and then, we provide a set of countermeasures, correspondingly named Security Model Requirements. Based on the investigation, we concentrate on Seluge, one of the existing over-the-air programming schemes, and we propose an improved version of it, named Seluge++, which complies with the Security Model Requirements and replaces the use of the inefficient Merkle tree with a novel method. Analytical and simulation results show the improvements in Seluge++ compared to Seluge

Examining the prevalence rate of Pediculus capitis infestation according to sex and social factors in primary school children

Objective: To determine the prevalence rate of head louse infestation among elementary students, and examine the associated factors with infection in the city of Aran and Bidgol. Methods: A total of 19 boys' and girls' primary schools were selected by multistage, systematic random sampling. Overall, 3 590 students were examined for head lice infestation in urban areas of Aran and Bidgol during 2008. The diagnosis was based on live louse or nit on the scalp of students. The students were screened by standard questionnaire and demographic data in addition to related information were obtained by interview and observation. The data were analyzed by SPSS software using chi-square and Fisher's exact tests. Results: The mean age of students was (8.68±1.58) years ranging between 6-12 years. The total prevalence of head louse infestation was 0.47. This rate was 0.42 and 0.05 in female and male, respectively. There was a significant association between pediculosis and sex, father's job, mother's education, access to bathroom in home, prior infection, drug use and nationality, respectively (P<0.05). Conclusions: The results showed that pediculosis was not a major health priority among primary school in city of Aran and Bidgol. However, enhancing the knowledge of students about head lice infestation and the existence of health teachers in schools can play a significant role in disease control. © 2014 Asian Pacific Tropical Medicine Press

Tamoxifen induces apoptosis of leishmania major promastigotes in vitro

Tamoxifen is an antagonist of the estrogen receptor and currently used for the treatment of breast cancer. The current treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis with pentavalent antimony compounds is not satisfactory. Therefore, in this study, due to its antileishmanial activity, effects of tamoxifen on the growth of promastigotes and amastigotes of Leishmania major Iranian strain were evaluated in vitro. Promastigotes and amastigotes were treated with different concentrations (1, 5, 10, 20, and 50 μg/ml) and time periods (24, 48, and 72 hr) of tamoxifen. After tamoxifen treatment, MTT assay (3-4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl-2,5 biphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay) was used to determine the percentage of live parasites and Graph Pad Prism software to calculate IC50. Flow cytometry was applied to investigate the induction of tamoxifen-induced apoptosis in promastigotes. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of tamoxifen on promastigotes was 2.6 μg/ml after 24 hr treatment. Flow cytometry analysis showed that tamoxifen induced early and late apoptosis in Leishmania promastigotes. While after 48 hr in control group the apoptosis was 2.0%, the 50 μg/L concentration of tamoxifen increased it to 59.7%. Based on the in vitro antileishmanial effect, tamoxifen might be used for leishmaniasis treatment; however, further researches on in vivo effects of tamoxifen in animal models are needed. © 2016, Korean Society for Parasitology and Tropical Medicine

Identifying the type of cutaneous leishmaniasis in patients, reservoirs and vectors by RAPD-PCR in Aran & Bidgol district of Esfahan Province during 2006-7

Background: Iran is recognized as one of the important foci of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL). ZCL is endemic in several parts of Esfahan (e.g. Aran & Bidgol) where the prevalence of cutaneous leishmaniasis is at an alarming rate for the health autorities. This epidemiological study was coducted to identify the species of parasite among patients, reservoirs and vectors in different regions of Aran & Bidgol during 2007-8. Materials and Methods:Â This cross-sectional study was carried out on parasites isolated from cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) patients reffering to Aran & Bidgol health centers and rodents or sandflies sampled from the district. Diagnosis of human contamination was verified using ulcer sampling and rodent smears obtained from the external margin of the ears and the dissection of the sandflies. Parasites were incubated in NNN medium. After the extraction of DNA from human, rodent and sandfly, the DNA was identified by RAPD-PCR. During a period of 4-12 weeks after the injection of the isolated Leishmania major parasites of human, rodent or sandfly, it made ulcers in the proximal end of the tail of BALB/c mice, but this was not the case for human Leishmania tropica isolates. After classification, the information related to patients, reservoirs and vectors was compared to standard species and markers using descriptive statistics, the frequency percent of reports and PCR bonds. Results: RAPD-PCR showed that 71.4 of human isolates were Leishmania major and the remaining 28.6 Leishmania tropica among the collected rodents 17.8Â were Rhombomys opimus infected with Leishmania major. 1.9 of the collected blood fed sandflies were identified as infected with L. major. Conclusion: Molecular tests showed that the parasite of the human, reservoirs and vectors isolates was L. major and the nature of disease was rural type. Regarding the R. opimus role as a basic and important reservoir, the control of the rodent to decrease the disease is suggested

A new focus of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in Isfahan Province, Central Iran

Objective: To determine the epidemiological features of cutaneous leishmaniasis including human infection, reservoirs and vectors in the city of Aran o Bidgol. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on Leishmania spp. isolated from rodents, sandflies and patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis in Aran o Bidgol. Parasites were identified by random amplified polymorphic DNA-PCR technique and data were reported by using descriptive statistics and frequency percent. Results: Random amplified polymorphic DNA-PCR showed that 71.4 of human isolates were Leishmania major (. L. major) and the rest were Leishmania tropica. In addition, 17.8 of Rhombomys opimus and 1.9 of female Phlebotomus papatasi were infected with L. major. Conclusions: The results indicate that L. major parasite is the causative agent of the disease among patients. And Rhombomys opimus and Phlebotomus papatasi are the main reservoir host and vector in the dissemination of L. major in the city. Therefore Aran o Bidgol is introduced as a new focus of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in Central Iran in order to prevent zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis, and control of the rodents and sandflies are suggested. © 2015 Asian Pacific Tropical Medicine Press

Sensitivity of German beetle of hospitals to insecticides in Kashan

History and Objectives: German beetles are the most common beetles in human dwellings. They show different sensitivity to insecticides according to the region. Therefore, for determination for their sensitivity, they were collected from Naghavi, Shaheed Beheshti hospitals and Shabihkhani maternity hospital and exposed to different insecticides during the years 1995-1996. Materials and Methods: Beetles were collected by hand or by putting trap. After 48h of their capture in laboratory according to standards of WHO, they were exposed to Ectelic (0.12 g/m² and 0.2 g/m²), Sulfak (0.2 g/m²), Kupex (0.125 g/m² and 0.25 g/m²) and Ficam (0.24 g/m²) and knock down experiments. In this study regression analysis and criteria KT50 and KT90 were calculated. Results: For Ectelic insecticide (0.12 g/m²), a mortality of 45, 53 and 65 was obtained in Naghavi, Shaheed Beheshti hospitals and Shabihkhani maternity hospital respectively. For Sulfak insecticide (0.2 g/m²), KT50 was 9.87. 6.72 and 5.51 min in Naghavi, Shaheed Beheshti hospitals and Shabihkhani maternity hospital respectively. For Kupex insecticide (0.12 g/m²), KT50 was 23.9, 9.93 and 7.89 min in Naghavi, Shaheed Beheshti hospital and Shabihkhani maternity hospital respectively. And for Ficam (0.24 g/m²). KT50 was 31.23, 14.98 and 16.20 min in Naghavi, Shaheed Beheshti hospitals and Shabihkhani maternity hospital respectively. For Ectelic and Kupex insecticides, there was not a 100 mortality rate after 24h and with a higher dose of Ectelic, mortality rate was 74, 80 and 88 in Naghavi, Shaheed Beheshti hospitals and Shabihkhani maternity hospital respectively. For Kupex (0.25 g/m²), mortality was 100. Conclusion: It is concluded that sensitivity of beetles is different to different insecticides and also according to the site of collection. Multiple and repetitive use of these insecticides can lead to increased resistance

The effect of tamoxifen on the growth of Leishmania major promastigotes and amastigotes in vitro

Background: Treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis with pentavalent antimony compounds, as an established drug, may have limitations, side effects and recurrence risk. For this reason, finding new and effective drugs is of great importance. In the present study, the effect of tamoxifen on the growth of Leishmania major promastigotes and amastigotes was evaluated in vitro. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, the effect of different concentrations (1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 μg/ml) of tamoxifen on Leishmania promastigotes and amastigotes were evaluated in three different times (24, 48 and 72h) and the inhibitory concentration 50 (IC50) was calculated by counting of the parasites. The MTT (3-4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl-2, 5 biphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay was used to determine the percentage of live promastigotes and amastigotes after adding tamoxifen. Results: The number of promastigotes and amastigotes were declined in the presence of various concentrations of tamoxifen after 24, 48 and 72 hours of culturing. Twenty-four hours after culturing, the number of parasites was 1.07�106 per ml in the control group and the parasite numbers in the concentrations of 1 and 50 μg/ml tamoxifen were 0.95�106 and 0.06�106, respectively. The IC50 value of tamoxifen was 2.64μg/ml. Conclusion: Tamoxifen has antileishmanial effects in vitro thus, more researches on the effect of tamoxifen in animal models are suggested

Hospital waste analysis in Kashan in 1380-81

Background : Waste materials are a matter of concern in most societies. In our country there is no documented analysis of these waste materials, thus, the resent study was designed to analyze the hospital wastes physically. Materials and methods : It was a descriptive study. Samples were gathered from hospital wastes of Shahid Beheshti, Shabih Khani, Matini, Naqavi, and Akhavan. Totally, 60 samples were gathered during the study. Then, a 50-kg sample was prepared, for which, waste analysis was performed according to different particles. Results : Totally, 15012 kg wastes were gathered. Shahid Beheshti had the highest and Matini the lowest wastes. Different particles were as follow: decayed materials 15.7, plastic 13, papers 5, cloth 4.5, glass 3.7, metals 2.1, and nylon 1.9. Average monthly amount of waste for each Shahid Beheshti hospital bed was 2.9kg, for Naqavi, Shabih Khani, Matini and Akhavan hospitals were 3.6, 5.9, 4.5, and 3.7 kg, respectively. Conclusion : The monthly average amount of wastes is high in Kashan hospitals. It is worth surveying