A Five-year retrospective hospital-based study on epidemiological data regarding human Leishmaniasis in West Kordofan state - Sudan

Abstract Background Leishmaniasis is a parasitic zoonotic disease caused by the Leishmania parasites genus. The estimation of this disease is very important to inform the health care policymakers and the governments to applied proper health and economic policies. Thus, this study aimed, to find out the frequency and distribution of human leishmaniasis in West Kordofan state, based on sex and age during 5 years- Sudan. Methods Five years retrospective study from 2016 through 2020 was carried out using local hospital records of leishmaniasis patients. The age and gender of each patient were recorded. The collected data were analysed using STATA package version 16. Results A total of 162,443 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 old, which was, and the lowest prevalence (1.95%) was among patients in ≥65-year-old. Conclusion The current study indicates that leishmaniasis is endemic in the study area even though the numbers of patients in the five consecutive years were varying. Besides, the disease was common in males and adults.