Journal of Human, Environment, and Health Promotion

138-146

Authors: Akbar Eslami, Mohtasham Ghafari, Valiallah Sohbatloo*, Farzane Fanaei

Background: The best way to assure the quality of drinking water is implementing a comprehensive and integrated management system with cooperation of all the related organizations Therefore, the purpose of this study is the assessment of safety in drinking water supply system of Zanjan. Methods: This investigation was performed by WSP-QA Tool software and WHO and IWA manual of water safety plan on water supply of Zanjan city in 2016. For this purpose, software checklist (containing 85 questions) were provided and completed according to the history of Zanjan Water and Wastewater Company and interviewing the experts of this company. Results: Data indicated that from all phases investigated, 52.95% was adjusted with WSP. System Description with the highest score, showed highest percentage of adjustment with the water safety plan (100%) and the phase related to verification and control with the lowest score, showed lowest percentage of adjustment with the water safety plan. Conclusion: Meanwhile, water distribution system is provided with a relatively average safety level and there is the potential of various pollutions caused by identified risks in water distribution system, therefore changing the present approach is suggested.

154-160

Authors: Nahid Nabavi, Mazyar Peyda*, Golam Reza Sadeghi

Background: In the present study, the photocatalytic (TiO2/UV) batch process has been used for the methyl orange (MO) degradation. Methods: In the catalyst range from 0.25 to 1.5 g/L, the optimum concentration of TiO2 was found to be 0.5 g/L. The kinetic behavior of MO degradation has been evaluated using the non-linear form of pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order models. Results: The goodness of the fit was evaluated using the correlation coefficient R2 value and the mean square error (MSE) function. Conclusion: The kinetic studies revealed that the pseudo-first order model (k1 = -0.0593 min-1) is more suitable to fit the experimental data (R2 = 0.957, MSE = 0.00271) of MO degradation.

168-176

Authors: Ali Pezeshki, Elnaz Kadkhodamohammadi, Abbas Mahmoodzadeh, Ali Haniloo*

Background: The genus of Acanthamoeba is an opportunistic protozoan parasite with a worldwide distribution where it is able to cause fatal granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE) and amoebic keratitis (AK). This organism inhabits in the wide range of natural and man-made aquatic environments. The present study was carried out to evaluate the presence of Acanthamoeba spp. in the various water resources of Zanjan province, northwest Iran, using both morphological and molecular methods. Methods: The Water samples were randomly collected from 30 water sources in different parts of Zanjan, Iran, between April 2015 and May 2016. Then, the samples were cultured on non-nutrient agar and the Acanthamoeba genus identified by morphological characters. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed using the 18S rRNA gene as a molecular marker. Results: The obtained data showed that, out of the 60 water samples collected, 30 (50%) were positive for Acanthamoeba spp. According to morphological and molecular approaches. Conclusion: The present investigation is the first report of the distribution of Acanthamoeba spp. in the various water sources of Zanjan province, gives baseline knowledge regarding water contamination with Acanthamoeba spp. in these areas and emphasizes the necessity of more attention to water sources in order to prevent infections associated with Acanthamoeba spp.

186-192

Authors: Tayebeh Rakhshani, Seyyed Mansour Kashfi, Mohammad Reza Ebrahimi, Samira Taravatmanesh*, Mostafa Rasheki

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of knowledge, attitude and practice of the households on the prevention and control Cutaneous Leishmaniasis. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional, analytical. The population consisted of the residents in the south of Shiraz. The sample size was 300 and they were selected randomly. For analyzed using the descriptive indices as well as in-depended T-test, chi-square test and ANOVA. The SPSS software 16 was used for analysis. Results: The mean age of the participants was 36.1±13.6. The mean and standard deviation scores of knowledge, attitude and practice were 16.85 ±3.5, 34.38 ±6.43 and 5.6 ±1.9, respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient showed that the mean awareness (r = 0.13, P-value = 0.02) was more correlated with the mean practice compared to the mean attitude (r = 0.17, P-value = 0.00). However, both variables of knowledge and attitude had a significant relationship with practice (p-value = 0.00). Conclusion: Generally, the results of our study showed that the scores of knowledge and practice were lower than the mean score, and the attitude score was better than the two other scores.