Cutaneous leishmaniasis and Attempts to Con-trol it in the Contemporary Iranian History

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a zoonotic disease caused by two species of Leishmania major and L. tropica in Iran. The disease has been known and treated in Iran by many of the most prominent Iranian physicians including Avicenna and Rhazess over the past centuries. In Qajar era, following the introduction of modern medical knowledge, and major changes in our understanding of diseases, the diagnostic and treatment methods were changed. The first new reports on this disease were provided by European physicians living in Iran. During the 1940s, some prominent Iranian researchers began to study the epidemiology, treatment and laboratory specification of the disease in different parts of the country. Due to the outbreak of the disease during the Iraq-Iran war in a dense human population (soldiers), health authorities had to try different ways to control the disease. Most importantly, soldiers were injected with live parasite vaccine. However, this procedure did not continue after the war, and immunization with inactivated vaccine replaced it and passed different phases of clinical trials. Finally, these studies were published as scientific papers. The present paper summarizes the history and control of leishmaniasis in Iran