Cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iran: Demographic description and therapeutic outcomes

The aim of this study was to investigate various aspects of the treatment in patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iran in the first half of 2014. This cross sectional study was conducted on the existing data of 3684 patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis, whom were registered at the Disease Management Center of the Iranian Ministry of Health in the first half of 2014. Version 11 of Stata was used for statistical analysis and the level of significance was considered equals to 0.05. Of 3684 patients entered into the study (%55.1) were male and the mean age of the patients was 27±18 years. More than 34% of patients were treated with intralesional injections of meglumine antimoniate (MA) and 25% of patients recieved systemic MA injections. There were statistically significant correlations between the size and number of the lesions and the chosen treatment regimen (P<0.001). Thirty-five percent of patients treated with systemic MA between 7 to 10 days and 43.3% of patients recieved intralesional MA injections for 5 to 8 weeks. More than %99 of patients fully recovered without complication or treatment failure. It seems that Iranian patients suffered milder CL in comparison with some other coutries.