Copyright
©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Five-year retrospective hospital-based study on epidemiological data regarding human leishmaniasis in West Kordofan state, Sudan
Abdullah Abdulslam Abdullah, Musa Ahmed, Ahmed Gadeed, Adam Eltayeb, Safa Ahmed, Suad Hamad, Mohammed Hussein
Abdullah Abdulslam Abdullah, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, University of Gadarif, Gadarif 208, Sudan
Abdullah Abdulslam Abdullah, Musa Ahmed, Department of Reproductive Health Sciences, Pan African University Life and Earth Sciences Institute, University of Ibadan, Ibadan 119, Oyo State, Nigeria
Musa Ahmed, Department of Veterinary Surgery and Anaesthesia, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, ALsalam University, Al-fula 120, West Kordofan State, Sudan
Ahmed Gadeed, Adam Eltayeb, Environmental Studies and Research Center, Al-Salam University, Al-fula 120, West Kordofan State, Sudan
Safa Ahmed, Al-Sadaga Hospital, Al-fula 124, West Kordofan State, Sudan
Suad Hamad, Department of Zoonotic Disease and Disease Control, Ministry of Animal Resources, Al-Hamadi 215, South Kordofan State, Sudan
Mohammed Hussein, Department of Statistics and Health Information, Ministry of Health, Al-fula 127, West Kordofan State, Sudan
Author contributions: Abdulslam Abdullah A, Ahmed M, Gadeed A, Eltayeb A, Ahmed S, Hamad S and Hussein M conceived and designed the study and directed implementation and data collection; Abdulslam Abdullah A, Ahmed M and Hamad S analyzed and interpreted the data and drafted the manuscript; Abdulslam Abdullah A, Ahmed M, Gadeed A, Eltayeb A, Ahmed S, Hamad S and Hussein M edited the manuscript for intellectual content and provided critical comments on the manuscript; All authors gave final approval of the version to be published, have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Institutional review board statement: Ethical approval and permission were obtained from the Ministry of Health West Kordofan Ethics Review Committee.
Informed consent statement: Individual consent was not required as the data used were secondary, collected from the Ministry of Health West Kordofan data center.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no relevant conflict of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available at the Ministry of Health West Kordofan but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study and are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with the permission of the Ministry of Health West Kordofan.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Abdullah Abdulslam Abdullah, MSc, Academic Research, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, University of Gadarif, Al-Shwak-Al- Gadarif, Gadarif 208, Sudan. bahlol32029@gmail.com
Received: April 30, 2022
Peer-review started: April 30, 2022
First decision: June 8, 2022
Revised: June 15, 2022
Accepted: August 21, 2022
Article in press: August 21, 2022
Published online: September 29, 2022
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
In Sudan, human leishmaniasis is endemic, and the prevalence of the disease varies throughout the country. Although the disease in Sudan is serious, there is no overall estimation of the prevalence of human leishmaniasis in the western parts of the country, especially in the West Kordofan state.
Research motivation
The lack of published studies about human leishmaniasis in the western parts of Sudan especially in the West Kordofan state may cause a problem for the policymakers and local governments to develop and adopt a suitable prevention program to deal with the disease at the state level and the country level.
Research objectives
The objective of this study was to find the frequency and distribution of human leishmaniasis based on sex and age in West Kordofan, Sudan for 5 years.
Research methods
A 5-year retrospective study from 2016 through 2020 was carried out using local hospital records of leishmaniasis patients. The positive results were recorded after performing at least one of the following leishmaniasis standard tests: direct agglutination test, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and leishmania skin test.
Research results
A total of 162443 patient records from 2016 to 2020 were retrieved. Of these, 4.39% were found to be positive for leishmaniasis. The disease has been more common in males (65.3%) than in females (34.7%). The highest reported prevalence (6.58%) was in patients 15-44 years, and the lowest prevalence (1.95%) was among patients ≥ 65 years.
Research conclusions
The results of the current study indicate that leishmaniasis is endemic in the study area even though the numbers of patients in the 5 consecutive years were varying. In addition, the disease was common in males and adults.
Research perspectives
Further studies need to be carried out to clarify the economic impact of the disease on the public health sector in the state and the role of domestic animals in the epidemiology of the disease in Sudan.
