Some Epidemiological Aspects of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Iraq

The study was carried out during the period from September 2012 to August 2013 in fifteen Iraqi provinces. A rapid test kit for detection of specific antibody of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) to a recombinant antigen (rk39) in serum was used. The results revealed that 3267 children infected with VL. Geographical distribution showed that the disease was more prevalent in the southern and middle parts of Iraq. Thiqar was found to be the main endemic province 739 (22.6%), low prevalence was noted in Nenawa 3 (0.09%). The high percentage of infected appeared in February 2013 was 592(18.1%), while the low one appeared in August 2013 was 75(2.3%). The age among positive cases ranged between three months and 15 years .About half (54.4%) of detected cases at 1-4 years of age, and the proportion decreased as age increased. The main proportion of males who were infected was higher than female (55% versus 45%), this differences, however, is not statistically significant at (p 0.05).