18 Epidemiology of malaria.pmd

1College of Medicine, Tikrit, Iraq. 2Public Health Laboratory, Al-Tameem, Iraq. 3Directorate of Health, Al-Tameem, Iraq. Received: 12/02/2002; accepted: 14/05/2002 ABSTRACT To determine the rates of malarial infection in different areas of Al-Tameem province, we conducted a cross-sectional study from 1991 to 2000. We found an overall infection rate of 0.76% by Plasmodium vivax. Infection rates were highest in Dibis district (1.12%), followed by infections from outside the province (0.93%) and in Hawija district (0.89%), Kirkuk (0.62%) and Dakok (0.17%). Rates of infection varied by year with the lowest rate in 1991 (0.02%) and the highest rate in 1996 (1.84%). All ages were represented, with the highest rate of infection among 21–30-year-olds. Males had a slightly higher rate of infection (0.78%) than females (0.73%).