title: Spatial Analyses of the Relation between Rodent's Active Burrows and Incidence of Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Golestan Province, Northeastern of Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) is one of the most important vector-borne diseases in Iran. Wild Rodents play as a reservoir. The main aim of this study was to determine spatial analyses of the relationship between rodent's active burrows and Incidence of ZCL in Golestan Province, north east of Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  The cross-sectional study was conducted in 59 rural districts in Golestan Province. Spatial distribution of rodent's active burrows, human cases of ZCL and Incidence of disease were collected, using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The relationship of them were analyzed by Sperman test, SPSS software version No.13.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most number of rodents' active burrows, human positive cases (100 persons) and high Incidence of disease (35/1000) were observed in Korand rural district of Gonbad-e Kavoos County. There was significant correlation between the number of rodents active burrows with Incidence rate of disease (0.470, P< 0.001) as well as the number of cases in each districts (0.465, P< 0.001), There is high correlation between higher Incidence rate and human positive cases in districts with number of rodents' active burrows.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Vicinity of wild rodents' burrows to villages plays an important role in transmission of ZCL to humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, International Campus (TUMS-IC), Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Aioub
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sofizadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vatandoost
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Yavar
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rassi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ahmad Ali
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Hanafi-Bojd
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Sayena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rafizadeh
keywords: Cutaneous leishmaniasis; Golestan; Iran; Rodent burrows; Spatial analysis