Cutaneous leishmaniasis in primary school children in the south-eastern Iranian city

of active lesions or scars of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). There was a trend towards increasing prevalence with age, the prevalence being 10.7 % in 6-year-old and 20 % in- 11-year-old children. Overall, 1.3 % of the children had active lesions and 14.3 % had scars. There was no significant difference between the sexes in the prevalence of active lesions and/or scars. Of the children examined, 54 (0.5%yo) had leishmaniasis recidivans: 19 girls (35.2%) and 35 boys (64.8%). The number of active lesions or scars per child ranged from 1 to 10. The majority (82.3%) had 1 lesion, 12.4 % had 2 lesions, and 5.3 % had-3. The average number of lesions was 1.08 (1.03 in girls and 1.18 in boys). The face was the part of the body most commonly involved (63.6%), followed by the hands (20.9%), legs (12.8%) and other parts of the body (2.7%). Examination of isolates from 14 children revealed that in 13 (92.9%) the causal organism was Leishmania tropica and in the other (7.1%) L. major. The survey indicates that the geographical distribution of CL is far wider than previously thought. It also shows that Bam is a suitable area for a vaccine field trial