A climatological study of scorpion sting incidence from 2007 to 2011 in the Dezful area of southwestern Iran, using a time series model

Scorpion stings are a public health problem in south and southwest Iran. There is little information regarding climatological effects on incidence of scorpion stings in Iran. Therefore, the present systemic survey of scorpion sting data was conducted from the point of view of entomo-meteorological relationships and analyzed statistically for the Dezful area in Khuzestan, southwest of Iran. The time series analysis was implemented using MINITAB version 16 statistical software packages. In total, 3,755 scorpion sting files from the Dezful health centers were monitored from April 2007 to September 2011 in a time series analysis. The results showed that temperature had significant effects on scorpion sting. From the data of this study, it is concluded that the scorpion activity in Dezful County is a climatological-dependent phenomenon.