Evaluation of a Care Programme with Example of Poliomyelitis in Iran

ABSTRACT Surveillance is the ongoing process of collection, analyzing, interpreting and feedback of the health outcomes data. This health programme like every other programs should be assessed for improving. This study is performed in five provinces of Iran to assess the acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance by the quantitative and qualitative methods. During the 3 years (1996- 1998) 275 of AFP was reported in these 5 provinces with a sensitivity of 0.57 to 3.33 and 77% of reported cases had two stool samples and 92% had 60 days follow up. Studying the last 15 cases in each province showed that the median time of case investigation after reporting was 5 to 17 days. Though there is a fairly good level of performance in this program in Iran it is recommended to assess regularly the program to improve it and help to poliomyelitis eradication in Iran.