New Epidemic of Cutaneous Leishmainasis in Children in 2005 in Tikrit City

Abstract

This study is carried out to determine the epidemiology of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iraqi children below sixteen years old in Tikrit during December-2005. From 489 patients attended Tikrit teaching hospital, 83 (17%) of them were having cutaneous leishmainasis. Fifty one of them were males (61.4%), and thirty two (38.6%) were females. Total number of lesions were 114, and the dry lesions constitute 78 (68.4 %) of them while, 36 (31.6%) of them were wet. 52.6% of the lesions were in the face, 26.4% of the lesions were in the lower limb, 2.6% of the lesions were in the abdomen, chest, and upper arm, and only 0.8% were in the scalp. Three cases had combined visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis. A new epidemic of cutaneous leishmainasis had occurred in Iraq at end of 2005 and affects almost all ages and preferentially children and adolescents. Dry lesions were more common than wet lesions.