Naveeda Akhtar Qureshi
Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan
Title: Spatio-temporal pattern, future risk factors and plant based control of cutaneous leishmaniasis in district upper and lower Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Biography
Biography: Naveeda Akhtar Qureshi
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is a vector borne infection caused by various species of genus Leishmania and transmitted by Phlebotomine female sand flies. The metrological data was collected from Khyber Pakhtoonkhwah (district Dir) and correlated with CL cases of previous five years (2012-2016) obtained from basic health units. Blood samples of (n=1270) cases of leishmaniasis were collected and conformed for the presences of Leishmania tropica kDNA-PCR detection. The leaves extracs of Grevillea robusta, Bombax ceiba and two herbs Voila canescens and Euphorbia heliscopia were evaluated for antileishmanial activity. The spatial patterns of CL infection were analyzed by ArcGIS 10.3 software. The Highest Annual Parasitic Incidence (API) was found in 2014 (0.049/1000), whereas lowest API was recorded in 2016 (0.024/1000). This appearance of CL cases revealed the highest peak of infection in spring followed by winter season. However no gender wise difference was observed and mostly children up to 20 year of ages were greatly affected. Current study provides a detailed insight into the CL epidemiology and its various risk factors in Dir. The highest spatial distribution of CL cases in tehsils was noticed as following, Balambat>Khal>Temergara>Warrai respectively. We also predicted that due to raise in global temperature and population of Dir, the tehsils adjacent to Balambat and Khal will be at risk in future. According to kDNA-PCR detection method, 95% specimens were positive and 5% were negative. The V. canescens showed the most significant antileishmanial activity with LCâ‚…â‚€ of 0.506 μg/ml.