Prevalence of Human Myiasis and its Epidemiological Aspects in Iran From 2013 To 2020: A Review Study

Objective:

 Myiasis is caused by the invasion of eggs and larvae of some flies into living or dead tissues of the host. This study aims to determine the prevalence of human myiasis and its epidemiological aspects in Iran during 2013-2020.

Methods:

 This is a review study. A search was conducted in Google Scholar, Scopus, Scimago, PubMed, IranMedex, MagIran and ISC databases using the MeSH keywords for all studies reported the human myiasis cases in Iran during 2013-2020.

Results :

A total of 26 human myiasis cases were reported in Iran from 2013 to 2020. The most cases were reported in 2015 (n=5, 26.9%). Most of patients were at the age group >60 years (n=10, 38.5%); 50 %of patients were male and 50% were female; 88.5% lived in urban areas and 11.5% in rural areas. Oral myiasis (n=6, 23.1%) followed by ophtalmomyiasis and intestinal myiasis each with 5 cases (19.2%) were the most common types. The reported species were Megaselia scalaris, Sarchophaga Fertoni, oestrus ovis, Lucilia sericata, Chrysomia bezziana, Eristalis tenax, Lucilia illustris, Calliphora vicina, Sarchophaga argyrostoma, and two unidentified species from the Psychoda sp. and Sarcophaga sp. The species Lucilia sericata with 7 cases (26.9%) and Chrysomia bezziana with 5 cases (19.2%) were the most common species. The mean number of larvae removed from the patients was 21.5±5.4.

Conclusion:

  Human myiasis is an infectious disease. Therefore, it requires health interventions in the form of increasing public awareness to prevent the disease prevalence.