Uncorrected Proof Shiraz E-Med J. In Press(In Press):e69333. Published online 2018 September 24. doi: 10.5812/semj.69333. Research Article The Impact of Climatic Factors on Spatial Distribution of Scorpion Stings in Ardabil Province, North-West of Iran; 2012 - 2017 Eslam Moradiasl 1 , Davod Adham 1, * , Hossein Solimanzadeh 2 , Abedin Saghafipour 3 and Hadi Eghbal 2 1 Department of Public Health, School of Public Health, Ardabil University of Medical Science, Ardabil, Iran 2 Institutes of Health Meshkin Shahr, Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Ardabil, Iran 3 Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran * Corresponding author: Department of Public Health, School of Public Health, Ardabil University of Medical Science, Ardabil, Iran. Tel: +98-4533513775, Email: d.adham@arums.ac.ir Received 2018 April 11; Revised 2018 September 02; Accepted 2018 September 03. Abstract Background: Scorpion sting is a major health threatening problem in the world, while most victims in Iran are children. Identifi- cation of high-risk areas for scorpion stings and dispersal areas map can help to control, prevent, and take effective measures in a timely manner. Objectives: The current study aimed at investigating the scorpion stings and determining the distribution status and spatial anal- ysis in Ardabil Province, North-West of Iran. Methods: The current cross sectional study collected the routine human scorpion stings information from health houses, health- care centers, and hospitals of Ardabil Province from 2012 to 2017 in standard epidemiological surveillance forms. The current study employed Arc GIS 10.2.3 and the space map projection to provide spatial distribution maps of high-risk areas for scorpion stings. Results: Eight hundred fifteen cases of scorpion stings from all 10 counties of Ardabil Province were reported. During the study period, there was direct significant relationship between the increase of scorpion sting cases and temperature, as with 3°C average annual temperature increase, the incidence rate of scorpion sting increased from 5.45/100,000 in 2012 to 16.32/100,000 in 2017. Two hot zones of scorpion stings were detected in Khalkhal and Germi counties; the Southern and Northern areas of the province, respectively. Conclusions: According to the current study findings, there were some hot zones of scorpion stings in Southern and Northern areas of the province. In addition, since the increase of temperature and reduction of rainfall and humidity coincide with the in- crease of scorpion stings, it is expected that with the increase of temperature in the next years with regard to the global warming phenomenon, scorpion stings also increase in this province. Keywords: Spatial Distribution, Scorpion Sting, Iran 1. Background Annually, over one million scorpion stings occur in the world (1, 2). Scorpion sting is one of the health threaten- ing problems and 36,000 cases are reported in Iran per year (3). Most of the scorpion sting victims are children. Approximately, the mortality due to the scorpion stings is annually more than 3250 cases in the world, and less than 20 human cases in Iran (4). Scorpion belongs to phy- lum Arthropoda and class Arachnida and to date 16 fami- lies of scorpions are identified worldwide (5, 6). There are three families of scorpions in Iran: Buthidae, Hemiscorpi- idae, and Scorpionidae; 1500 species of scorpions are iden- tified in the world of which 50 species are dangerous to humans (7); 23 genus and 44 species are identified in Iran. It is reported that most of the scorpions are scattered in Southern, and Southwestern areas of Iran, and the max- imum variation of the scorpions are reported in Khuzes- tan Province with 19 out of 59 identified species (3, 8, 9). Four scorpion species are scattered in Azerbaijan regions, including Compsobuthus matthiesseni, Mesobuthus cau- casicus, Orthochirus Scrobiculosus, and Scorpio maurus Linnaeus (1758) and in Ardabil regions two species were identified: Mesobuthus eupeus and Andrectonus crassi- cauda (10, 11). Scorpion sting occur in all regions of Iran. There is no complete definition of scorpion sting epidemi- ology and clinical signs in Iran (12, 13). However, the clin- ical symptoms of scorpion sting are different depending on the species: The amount of toxins entering the body, the season of the sting, and age and physical condition of the injured person (14, 15). Geographical information sys- tem (GIS) is a powerful tool for the epidemiological surveil- Copyright © 2018, Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.