Seroprevalence of Human Hydatidosis Using ELISA Method in Qom Province, Central Iran

Background: the objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of cystic echinococcosis (ce) in qom province, central iran using elisa test. methods: overall, 1564 serum samples (800 males and 764 females) were collected from selected subjects by randomized cluster sampling in 2011-2012. sera were analyzed by elisa test using agb. before sampling, a questionnaire was filled out for each case. data were analyzed using chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression for risk factors analysis. results: seropositivity was 1.6% (25 cases). males (2.2%) showed significantly more positivity than females (0.9%) (p= 0.03). there was no significant association between ce seropositivity and age group, occupation, and region. age group of 30-60 years encompassed the highest rate of positivity. the seropositivity of ce was 2.1% and 1.2% for urban and rural cases respectively. binary logistic regression showed that males were 2.5 times at higher risk for infection than females. conclusion: although seroprevalence of ce is relatively low in qom province, yet due to the importance of the disease, all preventive measures should be taken into consideration.