Seasonal distribution of CCHF vectors in Khouzistan province, Iran during 2013-2014

Background: Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever [CCHF] is a severe tick-born illness caused by the CCHFV. Ruminant animals are the main host to ticks, and ticks are a vector of CCHF. Therefore, this survey was carried out in 2013 on ticks of Khouzistan province, in the Southwest of Iran, to specify tick species parasitizing live stocks and their seasonal population dynamics

Materials and Methods: during a survey for possible tick population of Khouzistan province as one of the critical epidemiologic areas in Iran, ticks were collected from the body of infested animals by a tweezer and then transported to the laboratory of Medical Entomology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences and finally were identified to genus and species level using identification key

Results: a total number of 372 hard ticks were collected randomly from 458 live stocks in 7 different cities. Shosh was the most infected city in this study. Ticks infection rate on sheep, goat and cow was 84.12%, 12.69 % and 3.17%, respectively. In the study 2 genus and six species of hard ticks were identified including Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Hyalomma anatolicum, Hyalomma asiaticum, Hyalomma sp., Hyalomma marginatum and Rhipicephalus turanicus. Rhipicephalus sanguineus was the most frequent species in the study area

Conclusion: outbreak of human cases of CCHF in parallel with ticks' distribution shows the importance of this survey. Despite of studies that have been done on ticks distribution and ticks infestation in Iran recently no study has been conducted yet about this field in this province

[Clinical and molecular investigation of friedreich ataxia in Iranian patients]

Friedreich ataxia [FA] is an autosomal recessive disorder that caused by the expansion of GAA trinucleotide repeat in the first intron of gene X25 [1]. FA is characterized by progressive ataxia and deep tendon areflexia in the lower limbs, dysarthria, skeletal deformities, Cardiomyopathy, muscle weakness and diabetes mellitus may be also found. Cardiomyopathy occurs in almost patients with FA [2]. Cardiomyopathy is the most cause of death in FA patients [3]. Aim of present study was to evaluate the size of GAA repeat and it's correlation with age at onset and cardiomyopathy in these patients. Long PCR testing subsequently confirmed the diagnosing of FA and by identification of GAA repeat, an inverse correlation between size of repeat and age at onset and cardiomyopathy was found