Epidemiology of leprosy in Kermanshah province from 2003 to 2008

Background: Although leprosy is an endemic disease in Iran, it has been reduced rate over recent years. The present study has been conducted to investigate epidemiology of incident cases over last 6 years.

Methods: A descriptive study designed to investigate all reported cases of leprosy in Kermanshah Province from 2003-2008. Data was collected from leprosy referral center in Kermanshah. Data was analyzed using descriptive methods and Stata software. The incidence of leprosy was calculated by dividing the total number of new cases in each year to total population of Kermanshah Province.

Results: Overall, 41 cases of leprosy have been diagnosed over the period of study. From total of 41, three cases referred from outside of Kermanshah province and excluded from analysis. The mean age of patients was 49.6±13.9. The highest and the lowest number of cases were diagnosed in 2004 (14 cases) and 2005(3 cases) respectively. Most of lesions occurred in upper and lower limbs (10 cases) 32 cases diagnosed as lepromatous leprosy. Kermanshah city, Javanroud and Salas-Babajani had the highest number of patients. Overall, the incidence of this condition was less than 1/100,000 in each year.

Conclusion: We concluded that leprosy has been eliminated in Kermanshah province and even adding the undiagnosed patients does not change this conclusion.