Seroprevalence of Hydatidosis in Outpatients Attending Health Centers in Hamadan City, 2017

Hydatidosis is one the most important zoonotic infections that is a critical issue of health economics in endemic areas. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence level of hydatidosis and parasitic disease encounters in Hamadan. This cross sectional study was conducted on 1000 individuals referring to health centers in Hamadan in 2017. The samples and demographic data had been collected before the serum samples were subjected to anti-Echinococcus IgG antibody detection by ELISA method. Data were analyzed using SPSS and Fisher's exact test. Out of the total participants, four subjects (two males and two females, 0.4%) were considered positive for anti-Echinococcus antibody. Two of the seropositive individuals were residing in rural and the other two subjects were living in urban areas. In addition, about ninety nine percent of the cases had no knowledge of hydatid cyst disease. Three of the seropositive subjects had a history of contact with dog (29.3%). Moreover, they used water for washing raw vegetables (36.2%). The prevalence level of hydatidosis in this area is lower than that of other regions in Iran. However, it is a must to implement management and prevention programs to control and reduce the infection levels in the country due to the endemicity and health economics importance of this issue.