Geographical distribution of Malaria in Jahrom, South of Iran(2006 – 2016)

Public health issues and spread of diseases are directly related to the regional geography. The present study was designed and conducted to investigate geographical distribution of Malaria in southern Fars province in Jahrom city using the Geographical Information System (GIS).
In the present Descriptive study, the geographical coordinates of each patient were determined for spatial analysis of malaria. For spatial analysis, Moran’s index autocorrelation and kriging interpolation method were used in GIS-10.3 software.
A total of 136 cases of Malaria had occurred during the study years. The highest annual parasite incidence related to 2006, 2007, and 2008 with incidence rate of 0.15, 0.108, and 0.116 in every 1000 people respectively, and since 2008, with a slight fluctuation the incidence of Malaria had had a descending trend, with Moran index of 0.04 and Z-score of 0.33, indicating random distribution. The results obtained from Kriging method and Jeefoo et al. classification showed that the risk of incidence is very high(0.275 per 1,000 people) on the margins of Jahrom city (P=0.73)(Moran index=0.04)(Z-score=0.33)
This study indicated that the prevalence of malaria in the margin of the city of jahrom is more than central areas. Spatial Analysis of the disease also can be a useful tool in malaria prevention and control program by showing hisk risk areas for malaria and it can help to assess environmental factors.