Geographic information system (GIS) nowadays is one of the most helpful epidemiological tools for identifying the high risk areas of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). This study was conducted to determine the spatio-temporal distribution of CL in Qom province during 2009-2017. In a crosssectional study, for the survey of spatial dispersion of CL in the study region, the incidence rate of disease was calculated in all of 23 villages during 2009-2017. Then, spatial analysis of the infection was performed using two methods: spatial autocorrelation (Moran's I) in order to determine the special distribution pattern of disease and Kriging method to reveal high risk areas for disease. The incidence of CL in Qom province has been decreasing as of 2009-2015 and increasing in 2015-2017. The highest incidence was stated in 2009 (36.5 per 100,000) and the least was reported in 2015 (13.3 per 100,000). The Moran autocorrelation index revealed that the study area has a cluster pattern. The temporal distribution of disease incidence showed that northeast, southwest and northwest parts of Qom province involved highest incidence of CL in 90% significant level. Leishmaniasis incidence is a function of spatial and geographical trends, thus spatial variations of the infection incidence illustrate that the incidence rate does not increase or decrease from one region to another intensively. The results of this study indicate that marking high risk areas using spatial analysis can be helpful as a main tool in CL control and prevention.

Background: The scorpions have enjoyed medical importance from ancient times because of their morphological structure and venom. The identification of the species of these arthropods has been more emphasized than any other aspects. The purpose of this study was to determine scorpion’s fauna and mortality rates of their victims as reported in Iran. Methods: In this review, published documents during 1966–2018 related to medically important scorpions and mortality reports due to scorpionism were searched in the data bases such as Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar and etc., using key words including scorpion, species, classification, Iran, family, species, and the names of all 31 provinces of Iran. Results: Overall, 169 sources were found. Based on the STROBE checklist, the quality of the documents was also considered, and ultimately, 95 sources were selected. Sixty-four species of scorpions have been identified in Iran and 86% of the species belong to the Buthidae family, and the rest (9.5%, 4.5%) belong to the Hemiscorpiidae and Scorpionidae families, respectively. These species live mostly in tropical regions of Iran. The dangerous scorpions and their mortality reports are often recorded from southern regions such as Khuzestan and Hormozgan provinces. Conclusion: Due to the significant increase in the abundance of scorpions in Iran over the past 30 years, it is expected that this trend will continue by researchers, and the fauna of scorpions is regularly reconsidered.

Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a dermal and parasitic disease.. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of environmental and climate factors on spatial distribution of CL in northeastern Iran by utilizing remote sensing from 20 March 2016 to 19 March 2017. Methods: In this ecological study, the data were divided into two parts: The descriptive data on human CL cases were gathered from Communicable Diseases center of Iran. The remote sensing techniques and satellite imagery data (TRMM, MODIS-Aqua, MODIS-Terra and AMSR-2 with spatial resolution 0.25°, 0.05°, 5600m and 10km) of environ­mental and climate factors were used to determine the spatial pattern changes of cutaneous leishmaniasis inci­dence. Results: The incidence of CL in North Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan, and South Khorasan was 35.80 per 100,000 people (309/863092), 34.14 per 100,000 people (2197/6,434,501) and 7.67 per 100,000 people (59/768,898), respectively. The incidence of CL had the highest correlation with soil moisture and evapotranspiration. Moreover, the incidence of dis­ease was significantly correlated with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and air humidity while it had the lowest correlation with rainfall. Furthermore, the CL incidence had an indirect correlation relation with the air tem­perature meaning that with an increase in the temperature, the incidence of disease decreased. Conclusion: As such, the incidence of disease was also higher in the northern regions; most areas of North Khorasan and northern regions of Razavi Khorasan; where the rainfall, vegetation, specific humidity, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture was higher than the southern areas.

Medically important flies that majority of them are classified to synanthropic flies can be mechanical vectors for some of contagious diseases to human and many animals. Also some species of their larvae are cause of myiasis in human and livestock animals. The aim of this study was to determine the geographical distribution of medically important flies in Iran using Geographical Information System (GIS). All published English and Persian documents on medically important flies of Iran from reliable medical sciences resources were gathered. A database was then designed in Excel format, including all available information regarding flies. The valid data were transferred to ArcGIS 10.3 to prepare the first spatial database of medically important flies and human myiasis foci of Iran. The Iran Medical Important Flies base includes 71 papers and three PhD/MSc theses, reporting studies conducted during 1977-2017. This database contains different available data covering their faunistic and all myiasis data reports related to flies of 102 species in nine families of medical important flies in Iran. Twenty-three out of the 31 provinces of Iran, had some reports of medically important flies. However, these flies have high species diversity, wide geographical distribution and with various ecological niches in different provinces in Iran. Besides that, there are many high-risk foci of human myiasis in a number of provinces of Iran.

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