Epidemiological and hematological Investigation of Leishmania major

Abstract

In this study a total of 600 suspected cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis at refugee campus in Kirkuk were investigated. Samples were collected during the period of January – March 2015 ,pateints ages were (1-50) years old. Fifty four cases were found to be positive with infection rate 9% . Cutaneous leishmaniasis were more frequent in females (61.11%) than in males (38.88%) . The highest infection rate of cutaneous disease (37.07%) were found among age group (1-5) years where the lowest infection rate (1.85%) were found at age groups (31-35 and 46-50) years. Also the results showed that the infected cases with single sore(66.66%) were more frequent than with multiple sores (33.32%). Statistical analysis showed that the mean value of hemoglobin was significant decrease in the infected cases when compared to the control groups (P<0.05) . Furthermore , the differential count of leukocytes, neutrophil, monocytes and lymphocytes were significant increased significantly in patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis as compared to control groups. So may can consider the parameters above as a biomarker to identify the disease.