Human myiasis survey in Ilam Province, Southwest of Iran

Abstract

Abstract. Akbari M, Rafinejad J, Hanafi-Bojd AA, Aivazi AA, Biglarian A, Sheikhi S, Shavali Z, Akbarzadeh K. 2020. Human myiasis survey in Ilam Province, Southwest of Iran. Nusantara Bioscience 12: 143-147. Myiasis is the infestation of live human and vertebrate animals with dipterous larvae, which at least for a period. Ilam Province of Iran is one of the most important animal husbandry areas, especially nomadic, in Iran. The objective of this study was to identify the prevalence of myiasis in shepherds in Ilam Province. A cross-sectional study was conducted among the shepherds in Ilam Province, western Iran. Out of the 11 counties in Ilam Province, 6 were randomly chosen from three different climates for this study. A questionnaire was used by a trained interviewer to obtain the information from subjects. The disease has been seen in spring, summer, and autumn seasons. About 94.1% of people have been infested at least once. Pharyngeal myiasis had the highest prevalence with 58.3%. Itchy, painful throat, sneeze, cough, and headache were common symptoms. About 85.1% of people described the symptoms of the disease as severe and very severe. About 75.4% stated that the duration of the disease was more than 5 days. According to the results of the study, it was found that the prevalence of myiasis among shepherds in the Ilam Province is high and it is necessary to take appropriate measures to control the disease and increase health literacy.

The Importance of Health Education in the Prevention of Myiasis

“…Human myiasis in the eye causes edema; Swelling becomes runny and itchy, and in the throat, there is inflammation of the pharynx and vocal cords, problems in breathing and speaking, burning, persistent and bothersome coughs, and runny nose (Salimi et al, 2010, Samimi et al, 2017, Salmanzadeh et al, 2018. Akbari et al showed that due to background knowledge of the involved people in exposure to oral myiasis agents, conducting some preventive measures based on improving their knowledge, attitude, and practices could be useful for reducing the risk of the disease in the area (Akbari et al, 2021). Various studies have mentioned the role of health education and protective measures in preventing people from contracting common diseases between animals and humans, such as brucellosis, Crimean Congo fever, etc (Jalilian et al, 2022, Oruogi et al, 2012.…”