Abstract

This study was performed to assess the efficacy of permethrin-impregnated cloth (0.125 mg permethrin AI cm-2) against natural population of Phlebotomus papatasi (Scopoli), which is the main vector of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis, under field condition. Eight volunteers were selected for this study. Five of them put on the treated uniforms and the other three ones wore the untreated uniforms. All the subjects participated in the night biting tests for eight active nights between July and August 2004. In this study, the average number of biting among those who wore untreated uniforms (controls) was 1.75 sand flies bitings min-1 person-1 (105 h-1) against 0.52 (31.2 h-1) for volunteers who wore treated uniforms. The relative protection percent of treated uniforms, in comparison with untreated ones against P. papatasi (Scopoli), was about 70.3%. Although the technique of permethrin-impregnated clothes are provided considerable protection against sand flies biting, but it may be not acceptably decrease leishmaniasis, especially in endemic and hyperendemic areas. Therefore, in addition to permethrin-impregnated clothes protection, concurrently using of repellents on exposed skin is suggested. © 2008 Academic Journals Inc.