Epidemiology of Acute Flaccid Paralysis in Hormozgan Province, Iran

Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is a syndrome that occurs with the sudden onset of paralysis in any part of the body of infants and children under 15 years old. This study investigated the epidemiology and causes of AFP in patients under 15 years of age admitted to hospitals in Hormozgan province during 2011-2018.

After receiving the code of ethics, the information of the studied patients was collected by referring to the health center of Hormozgan province and reviewing their records. The corresponding data were gathered using a checklist that included the causes of paralysis, age, gender, place of residence, and involved organs and then analyzed with SPSS software.

Out of 121 patients, 58.7% were males. In addition, 69.4% and 21.5% of these patients were in the age groups of 0-5 and 5-10 years, and the remaining cases were in the age group of 10-15 years. In terms of accommodation, 19.8% and 14.9% of patients lived in Bandar Abbas and Minab, respectively. The highest incidence of the disease was 19% and 18.2% in 2013 and 2015, respectively. The most affected organ was 57% of both feet. The most common cause of AFP in this study was Guillain-Barre syndrome (37.2%), followed by transient synovitis (17.4%).

Considering the high annual incidence of this disease compared to the standard of the World Health Organization, it is recommended to launch training and vaccination campaigns to reduce the incidence and eradicate this disease.