V Torabi, M Mohebali, Ghh Edrissian, H Keshavarz, M Mohajeri, M Hajjaran, B Akhoundi, Aa Sanati, Z Zarei, A Delshad,
Volume 4, Issue 3 (20 2009)
Abstract
Background & Objectives: This study aimed to determine of the seroprevalence of visceral leishmaniasis to design a prevention and control program in Bojnoord district.
Methods: This was a descriptive and cross sectional study with multistage random sampling method. The study was carried out on children up to 12 years old and 10% of adult’s population in 8 rural areas of Bojnoord district in 2007. In total, 1608 blood samples were collected to detect anti-Leishmania antibodies. All the samples were tested by direct agglutination test (DAT). In order to determine Leishmania species, necropsy was performed on four suspected dogs in the studied areas. The species of Leishmania was determined by RAPD-PCR and PCR-RFLP methods using to amplify the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1).
Results: Thirty and eight (2.36%) out of 1608 collected blood samples had anti-Leishmania antibodies at titer 1:800 and nine (0.56%) were just positive at 1:3200 by DAT. There was no statistically significant difference between female and male seroprevalence (p<0/05). The seoprevalence in children <=12 years old compared to individuals greater than 12 years old did not show any statistically significant (p<0/05). Amastigotes were observed in all 4 necropsied dogs. The species of Leishmania isolated from 2 dogs, was determined as L.Infantum. Their ITS1 sequences were registered with Accession numbers EU810776 and EU810777 in NCBI.
Conclusions: These findings showed that visceral leishmaniasis has been circulated with low endemicity in Bojnoord district. Therefore an appropriate monitoring system is needed for health services in this area.
S Nazari, Z Keshavarz, M Afrakhte, H Riazi,
Volume 15, Issue 1 (Vol.15, No.1 2019)
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Cervical cancer is one of the five most common cancers in Iranian women. Considering the impact of HIV on cervical cancer and the low rate of cervical cancer screening in HIV positive women, this study was conducted to review the barriers to cervical cancer screening in HIV positive women.
Methods: In this systematic review, data were retrieved from Magiran, SID, Irandoc, Prequest, OVID, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Web of Science and Scupos databases from January 2000 to January 2018. The following keywords and their combination were used: cervical cancer screening, Pap smear, HIV-positive women, and barriers. The NOS (Newcastle-Ottawa Scale) checklist was used to evaluate the quality of the selected articles and the articles that scored more than six were included in the study.
Results: From 145 selected articles, 21 were included in the review based on the inclusion criteria. The most common reported screening barriers were the costs of test, lack of awareness, low education level, younger age, lack of information about screening centers, and fear of sampling.
Conclusion: Considering the barriers to cervical cancer screening, increasing the level of awareness of the HIV-positive women, preparing free Pap smear services, and providing easier access to health centers for this high risk group could lead to early detection of cervical cancer.
