Epidemiology of Malaria in Mazandaran Province during 1999-2003

Background and Malaria is one of the most fatal infectious diseases which annually kills more than 2 million people world wide. This parasitic infectious disease with global incidence rate of 300-500 million is one the most important complaints of our health system despite of strict preventive and treatment programs in ÏRÂN. Because of special condition of Mazandaran climate we have both the sporadic and the endemic forms of this disease in different parts of our province. The Purpose of the present study was to define the epidemiologic condition of the disease through an incidence survey between 1999-2003 in Mazandaran province. Present study is a descriptive study (old data) of 184805 files during a five years period between 1999-2003 in all of the 14 health centers of Mazandaran province. Demographic and other data were collected through a questionnaire consisting eleven questions. The data were then analyzed using descriptive statistical methods by SPSS software. 518 patients were found infected with different kinds of malaria parasites, of whom 80.3% were the Âfghan refugee, 13.7% were locally infected and 5% of them were passengers who came to Mazandaran from other Malaria endemic areas. Most of the cases (57.1%) belong to the age group (21-30 years) and 88.4% of them were male. Plasmodium Vivax was the most common parasite (96.9%). We noticed %150 increase in annuall parasite Ïncidence (ÂPÏ) during 1999-2003. Çonclusion: Çonsidering the high, Ïncidence rate of the disease in Mazandaran Province as well as high immigration rate from infected neighbour counties and special condition of Mazandaran climate, compaign against Malaria must continue. The incidence rate of malaria from 0.02% to 0.05% during these five years period. There for we need to enforce malaria control programs increased and improve the health system.