Iranian Journal of

Background & Objective: Hairdressing is one of the most public places and most important from the health issues (personal and environmental) point of view. In such places, non-observance of sanitary and non-normative activities are detrimental to the health of the community. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of disinfectants to control infectious diseases transmitted through hairdressers and infection control, as well as to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice of barbers with reference to the infectious diseases. Materials & Methods: The study included all female hairdresser (150 hairdresser) having official work in Gorgan City. The data required were collected through a questionnaire consisted of four parts: demographic information, knowledge, attitude, and practice questions (13 questions each) respectively. Disinfectants used were assessed using a checklist. Results: It was found that the most used disinfectant was bleaching powder (74.4%). The weekly and daily disinfection frequencies were 52.63 and 33.3% respectively. The research revealed that 49.45% had not have oven or autoclave to sterilize their dressing tools. The most used antiseptic for skin and hair was alcohol. Regarding infectious diseases, the barbers mean awareness was 10.83 ± 2.03, mean attitude 54.71 ± 3.99, and the mean performance was 12.44± 1.07. There were a significant positive correlation (p<0.01) between the variables of knowledge and attitude, knowledge and behavior, and attitude and performance. Conclusion: Barbers awareness about disinfection was moderate indicating the need for education and training about the types of disinfectants and how to use them. Nevertheless, the knowledge, attitude, and practices of barbers about the disease was moderate to high. Existence of the mandatory training courses on public health and having valid certificate conducted by private sector are the main reasons for increased awareness and attitude of the barbers and beauty salon dressers about infectious diseases.

Background and objectives: In the outbreak of infectious diseases, the on time epidemiological, environmental, and laboratorial investigations result in rapid diagnosis of cause and source of the outbreaks and decrease the diseases spread and public health loss. Following the outbreak of gastroenteritis in Pardis Town in January 2014, this research was conducted to identify the cause, source, and route of transmission of the outbreak.

Materials and methods: First, the descriptive epidemiological study was conducted using checklist and the stool samples were prepared and analyzed. The drinking water quality in Pardis during and before the outbreak was obtained from National Environmental Health Network. The community water supply system consisting of watershed, water resources, pipelines, storage reservoirs, disinfection systems, and distribution network were inspected and sampling and detection of thermotolerant coliforms and norovirus in water samples were performed according to the Standard Methods.

Results: There were 6,027 patients with symptoms of nausea, vomiting, cramps, mild diarrhea, and mild fever. The distribution of the disease in all age groups, gender, ethnicity, and location was uniform. Out of nine stool specimens, molecular testing of norovirus in six samples was positive. Hazards identified in the water supply system consisted of a water pipe fracture occurred two days before the outbreak, illegal connection of landscape irrigation system to the drinking water supply network, the use of unprotected Fellman wells as the resource of water supply, and discharge of domestic wastewater into the water resource upstream of the Fellman wells. The water samples taken from the Fellman wells had fecal contamination (11 out of 12 samples), but because of weakness and limited experience in identifying norovirus in water samples, norovirus was not detected in the raw water samples.

Conclusion: This study showed that the pathogen came from a single source. Clinical symptoms, epidemiological evidence, the results of analysis of human stool samples,  fecal contamination of raw water samples and norovirus resistance to the standard amounts of  free residual chlorine in water indicated that the outbreak caused by consumption of contaminated drinking water (discharge of domestic wastewater to water supply system). In order to prevent similar outbreak, resolving the observed bugs in the water supply system and implementation of water safety plan is recommended.

Background and Objectives: Assessing  human bioclimatic is foundation for many programs and plans, especially in the field of healthcare. In this study, human thermal comfort and its relationship with the incidence of diseases were investigated in Kurdistan province.

Materials and Method: The daily data of temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, and cloudiness between the years 1995-2014 were used. In the First step, Tmrt parameter was calculated in the Ray Man software environment. Then, UTCI index values were calculated using Bioklima software. In the final step, the climatic comfort zones were drawn in the ArcMap software.

Results: It was found that the UTCI values change from 20 to -23. Bijar and Zarrineh stations have the highest cold stress conditions. The calculated values showed that severe cold stress conditions prevail in most parts of the province almost throughout the year. The correlation coefficient values showed that the highest correlation with the height was observed in the cold months of the year (December- February). The results of UTCI zoning also showed that the central parts of the province consistent with the higher altitude areas had severe stress conditions.

Conclusion: The research showed that the province is faced with moderate to severe stresses in terms of human stress conditions. In the cold periods of the year, it will be more severe and more cold conditions are experienced in high places.