The First Epidemic and New-emerging Human Fascioliasis in Kermanshah (Western Iran) and a Ten-year Follow Up, 1998-2008

Background: fascioliasis is one of the most common zoonoticdiseases in iran and other parts of the world. although the largestepidemic of this disease has occurred in northern provinces ofiran (guilan) during the past two decades and a few cases havealso been reported in tehran and the other provinces, there hasbeen no evidence of its’ occurrence in western provinces of iransuch as kermanshah before the outbreak which is being reported.methods: the study was conducted by teamwork of infectiousdisease specialist, parasitologist, general practitioner, entomologist,and laboratory technician. it is an “epidemic investigation” anda cross sectional descriptive one. clinical data and para?clinicalchanges are recorded considering all of the population of a villagein kangavar, one of the suburbs of kermanshah (western iran).results: the mean age was 21.65, (sd=12.44). fifty three percentwere female, and all of them were farmers. eighty two percent hada history of watercress ingestion in a period of 1?2 months beforethe admission and 18% consumed other vegetables. the averageof eosinophils was 32.35% (sd=26). the patients’ enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (elisa) and counter currentimmuno?electrophoresis (ccie) serological tests were reportedpositive by the department of parasitology, pasteur instituteof iran. treatment response to triclabendazole was excellent.a ten?year clinical and laboratory follow?up revealed no evidenceof abnormality in treated patients.conclusions: it was the first case of human fascioliasis in westiran and was a real epidemic and an emerging infectious diseasefor this area at that time. the clinical symptoms were less severecompared with other reports. health education to inhabitants andhealth care workers can lead to rapid detection of such outbreaks.