Dr. Murai Éva - Gubányi András szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 31. (Budapest, 1998)

According to the report of the WHO (1990) 21 cases of VL were recorded from the whole of Afghanistan. There are reports that in Iran the incidence of CL has increased considerably over the last 10 years, mainly among nonimmune military personnel stationed in the zoonotic CL, located mostly in Khuzestan province on the southern borders with Iraq (Edrissian et al. 1990). In 1981 through 1984 a similar research (Edrissian at al. 1990) was done in Iran with comparable results. A total of 2202 individuals were examined, of which 1123 were found to be positive (51%). In our results we recorded the high prevalence of positive cases (mainly rural form) during the autumn, which could be explained by the incubation period of leishmaniosis and the activity of vectors especially in the summer months. Moreover, as was indicated by Strelkova (1996), in hyper-mesoendemic foci there are circulating Leishmania turanica and Leishmania major. L. turanica dominates in the spring months, whereas L. major in the beginning of autumn (August - September) in the population of large gerbil (Rhombomys opimus). Under the current conditions in Afghanistan any thorough research is highly risky, demanding and almost impossible. However, one remains hopeful that after the resolution of the current internal political problems it will be possible to start working toward the elimination of parasites, including Leishmania, which at present affect thousands of inhabitants of the region. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank the WHO for supplying medicines, to Prof. Vladimir Sery (Institute of Postgraduate Education in Public Health, Prague, Czech Republic), Dr. Petr Volf (Dept. of Parasitology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic) for critical comments and to Dr. Peter Degma (Faculty of Science, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic) for his valuable consultations in statistical data evaluation. Jalili, N. A., CerveA, D., Jalili, M. S. és Amiri, M. L.: A kután leishmaniózis előfordulása Balkh tartományban (Észak-Afganisztán) az 1990-1994-es évek folyamán Afganisztánban az 1990 és 1994 közötti időszakban 8410 pozitiv kután leishmaniózis esetet tartottak nyilván Mazar-e-Sharif városban és környékén. A kórt 6833 (81,25%) esetben Leishmania major (vidéki forma), 1566 (18,62%) esetben Leishmania tropica (városi forma) és 11 (0,13%) esetben lupoid L. tropica idézte elő. Az őszi hónapok folyamán észlelt pozitiv esetek (vidéki forma) nagy száma a leishmaniózis lappangási idejével és a vektorok nyári hónapok folyamán észlelt fokozott aktivitásával magyarázható.