The Salak disease, known by its medical term as leishmaniasis, is prevalent in 17 provinces, according to Health Minister Dr. Hassan Hashemi.
The disease has spread due to increasing vegetable cultivation and piling up of construction waste in a number of cities, which attract sand flies, he said, IRNA reported.
The ulcer-generating disease strikes mostly children, youth and young people between 20-30 years as a result of the social-environmental (ecological) and epidemiological changes. It is transferred to humans from animals such as mice, dogs, foxes and jackals by a bite from the mosquito-like sand fly, mainly in the spring and summer months, at twilight and during the night. It can be diagnosed in the hematology laboratories as the sores appear about two to eight months after being bitten. Infected patients need immediate medical treatment if the lesions are disfiguring, painful, infected and over joints, or slow to heal.
