Abstract
Background: Malaria is one of the important communicable diseases in Iran, as in 1382, 24,750 cases have been reported in Iran. Malaria is endemic in the south-east of Iran and its incidence has not any stable trend. The objective of this study was descriptive survey of secular trend of important indicators of malaria surveillance program from 1370 to thereafter, based on the country data set.
Methods: This is a descriptive study that looks at secular trend of malaria surveillance indicators in Iran and focuses on their variations at the time duration.
Results: Number of positive reported cases of malaria in Iran has had cyclic variation at 30 last years. Peak number of cases has been at 1356 and 1370 in this period. The most number of cases in this period was in 1370 that 45.42% of them were falciparum malaria. The malaria incidence trend has been decreased from 1370 to after, as indexes such as API, falciparum malaria ratio and SPR have had decreasing trend until 1381. In the period of 1370 to 1381 there was only a small increase in malaria incidence at 1374. The malaria incidence trend has rein creased after 1381 because of the regional transmission of infection in the south-east of country and especially in "Sistan and Baluchestan" province. The half of the malaria reported cases in Iran has been Iranian from 1379 to 1381, which increased to 70% at 1382. In 1382, 85 percent of total malaria reported cases in Iran was reported from "Sistan and Baluchestan", "Hormozgan" and "Kerman", so that 65% of them was from "Sistan and Baluchestan".
Conclusions: The small increase of incidence at 1374 has been resulted from increase of incidence in "Sistan and Baluchestan" province at that year resulted from regional transmission of infection. The increasing incidence trend after 1381 is related to increase of infection spread in three south-east provinces of country and not to imported cases.