| Summary: | Background & Aims: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a health problem, especially in tropical and subtropical
countries. In spite of new scientific developments in recent years, several questions related to this
disease have been raised that have still no answer. The objective of this research was to study the
epidemiology of CL and its relationship with blood groups in the city of Bam in 2007.
Methods: of 3000 suspected CL patients referred to the CL control clinic, 240 patients were randomly
selected and after the diagnosis of CL their blood groups and RH factors were determined and recorded in a
questionnaire. Similarly 360 volunteers referring to the Blood transfusion center were randomly selected (30
individuols per month) and their blood group and RH factor were determined with a similar method. Data
were analyzed by descriptive and analytical statistics and using χ
2
test.
Results: Most of the 240 CL patients were in the range group of 16-50 years (65.4%). In whole, 52.2% of
the lesions were on hand and 60% of the patients had single lesion and there was no significant difference
between two sexes. There was no significant difference between the case and control groups in regard to the
frequency of blood groups and RH. After matching of 108 individuals regarding the sex, age and place of
residence, in a case-control study, individuals with AB blood group had been infected 1.3 times more than
those with other blood groups, although it was not statistically significant.
Conclusions: As CL disease is becoming more complex, it is necessary to conduct further clinical basic
studies as well as epidemiological cohort observations in endemic areas.
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