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Background & Objective: Enteroparasitic infections constitute a serious public health problem in different populations including developed countries. Patients who receive chemotherapy of cancer have an increased probability of acquiring parsitic infections, generally with a high degree of severity. The aim of present study was to ascertain the frequency of intestinal parasites in patients admitted in oncology ward for chemotherapy. Materials & Methods: In a descriptive study, all the patients whith malignancy who admitted in Sina Hospital in Hamadan, Iran, during 2005 were included. Data including demographic characteristics, type of malignancy, and the time past from the diagnosis entered the questionnaires. A stool specimen were examined for each patients. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: Out of 190 patients, 94 (49.5%) were male and 96 (50.5%) were female. The mean age was 48.518.7 years (12-88 years). Thirty-one (16.3%) patients were involved intestinal parasites. The most common parasites were: Ascaris (41.9%), Giardia (35.5%), Indolimax nana (3.2%), Blastocytis hominis (3.2%), and Cryptosporidium (3.2%). The highest prevalence of intestinal parasites belonged to 40-60 years age group Conclusion: This study indicated that, the prevalence of intestinal parasites in patients undergoing chemotherapy for malignancy is lower than general population, which can be related to the effect of antineoplastic agents.

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Background & Objective: Despite their very wide geographical distribution in the Mediterranean region, most Leishmania infantum strains belong to zymodeme MON-1. As different Leishmania species are known to cause different clinical symptoms and may require different treatment protocols, therefore this study was done to identify and characterize the leishmania agents causing visceral, Leishmaniasis (VL) in humans, reservoirs and vectors in the north-west of Iran by Isoenzyme analyses. Materials & Methods: In this descriptive and cross sectional study, The samples collected from 12 VL confirmed patients (bone marrow aspirates), 26 dogs (spleen and hepatic aspirates) and more than 100 sand flies from northwest of Iran between 2005 and 2006. All aspirated material from human, canine and sandflies demostrated growth of Leishmania parasite in NNN and αMEM media. The above species compared with WHO reference strains, Leishmania (Leishmania) donovani (DD8), L (L) infantum (IPT-1), L (L) tropica (K-27), and L(L) major (5-ASKH), using thin layer starch gel electrophoresis. The enzymes investigated in this study were ALAT, ASAT, SOD, ES,NH, MPI, GPI, MDH, 6PGD, PGM, PEPD, and PDK. Results: In this study L.infuntum. MON-1 was the only zymodeme present in all samples of dogs and human sandflies. Conclusion: We concluded that the visceral Leishmania (VL) focus in northwest of Iran is evidently Mediterranean type, which extends from Portugal and Morocco to Pakistan and the Central Asia and domestic doges act as the reservoir host in northwest of Iran, where the complete life cycle of zymodeme MON-1 has been identified.

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Background and Objective: Raw water is one of the main sources of water supply in some communities. Filteration of surface water resources is a challenging point in the rainy seasons due to the highly turbidity. This study was done to evaluate the removal of turbidity in raw water using chitosan in electrocoagulation process using aluminum electrodes. Methods: In this the descriptive –analytical study, a Plexiglas electrocoagulation reactor in a lab scale to an approximate volume of 6 liter which was equipped with four aluminum electrodes having dimension of 200×20×2 mm was proposed. The effects of operating parameters including pH (5 to 9), applied voltage (10 to 30 V), the initial turbidity (100-600 NTU), initial chitosan concentration (0.5-2 mg/L) and contact time (5 to 30 min) were evaluated. Results: Turbidity removal efficiency was over 100% (pH=7, applied voltage=30 V and initial turbidity concentration of 100NTU) in the application of electrocoagulation with chitosan but in the application of electrocoagulation without chitosan removed 87% of turbidity in the same condition. Conclusion: Chitosan as coagulant aid in low amount can increase turbidity removal efficiency rather than application of electrocoagulation alone.