Leishmania Research Centre, Ministry of Health, P.O. Box 3750, Al-Ahsa-31982, (Saudi Arabia).
Al-Ahsa, area in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is recognized as a highly endemic area for zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis. This area has a vast dry land with plenty of chaenopod plants, a main source of food for reservoir gebril host i.e., Psammomys obems. Sandfly, Phlebotomus papatasi, a carrier of disease, lives in close contact of P. obesus in their holes. Disease control programme was initiated with the application of DDT (75%) @1 gm and 2 gm/m2 for indoor and outdoor sprays, respectively, and 1% sumithion. Also, sumithion 3.5% (oil) with diesel was used as thermal fog in the evening, while sumithion (ULV) with kerosene (1:7.5) was sprayed in the morning before sunrise. Resilin and sharpistow (pyrethroids) were used by different methods in different areas one after the other. Resilin was used with diesel (1:400) in the evening as thermal fog, whereas with kerosene (1:9) it was sprayed with ULV machine in the morning. Likewise, sharpistow 8/64 was used with diesel (1:100) as thermal fog and sharpistow 15‘S’ with kerosene (1:9) was applied with ULV machine in the evening or morning, respectively. After the application of insecticide, a significant decrease was noted in the sandfly density and patients. As a result the number of patients decreased from 5129 (1987) to 4096 (1988). Further application of insecticides supported with environmental management (mechanical control measure) led to drastie reduction in cases when only 2506 cases were recorded in 1989. After covering more area under integrated control strategy, the cases dropped continuously and in 1995 only 717 cases were recorded.
