The Relationship between Blood Type and Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Iran (A Review)

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is one of the health concerns in Iran. Numerous studies have examined the role of blood type in people with the disease. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence of leishmaniasis in different blood groups as a review in Iran.

For this review, two researchers evaluated the extracted articles in terms of relevance to the purpose of the study after searching four databases, including Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Science Direct. Literature reports on the prevalence of leishmaniasis in different blood groups in Iran until the end of March 2021. Relevant information included study time, study tool, number of subjects, mean age, and the relationship between blood type and infection which were recorded in Excel form.

After searching, screening, and qualitative evaluation of the studies, out of 135 identified articles, five papers met the required requirements. These five articles were published from 1999 to 2012, three studies examined the relationship between cutaneous leishmaniasis with different age groups. Also, three studies experimentally evaluated the relationship between cutaneous leishmaniasis with different human blood groups.

According to the results of the present review, cutaneous leishmaniasis is more common in some blood groups. Studies have shown that Rh-negative blood groups with B alleles are more affected by cutaneous leishmaniasis than others; however, more studies are required.