Introduction: Cystic echinococcosis is a neglected zoonotic disease with worldwide distribution, which occurs mainly in pastoral regions. Echinococcus granulosus sensu stricto, is the main agent of human infection. Although Iran is an endemic area for CE in the Middle East, lack of data regarding the disease among rural inhabitants of Khuzestan province in recent years, persuaded us to perform the current study.

Methodology: This cross–sectional study was conducted in 2016 using simple random sampling method in 15 villages of Shushtar county, southwestern Iran. Three hundred and fourteen of rural inhabitants were examined using AgB- ELISA test for CE.

Results: From the 314 patients included in the study, females and males were 244 (77.7%) and 70 (22.3%), respectively. Of these, 227 (72.3%) were in close contact with dogs, which 173 (70.9%) of them were females and 54 (29.1%) were males. ELISA detected three (1%) seropositive cases among investigated population. All three positive cases were females and in close contact with dogs. Furthermore, the positive cases in the age range of 21-50. None of the 70 examined males were positive.

Conclusions: This study is the first report of CE in rural areas of Shushtar, Southwest Iran, which indicated seroprevalence of CE among rural areas with a high prevalence rate of infection among females. It seems that the rural population of the region are at the risk of exposure to E. granulosus eggs. Therefore, more studies are required to evaluate the human CE in all parts of the province using serological and ultrasound methods.

Key words: Cystic echinococcosis, Iran, Khuzestan