Probable effective factors on malaria situation and morbidity in Bandar

Introduction: Malaria has continued to be a public health problem in Bandar Abbas with a morbidity of 1093-5672 cases during last decades. Several years study on malaria cases showed differences in the disease epidemic curve in different parts of Bandar Abbas district. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the malaria situation during 1998-2002, to find the probable effective factors on the disease and to obtain the last data to use in malaria control program. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional survey, ecological, geographical and demographic aspects of malaria disease were studied. Malaria data and is probable effective factors such as epidemiological indices, monitoring, treatment, amount of insecticides used in the malaria control program, living in urban or rural area, using electricity power, changes in the weather conditions, etc were obtained from Bandar Abbas public health center and its related urban and rural stations during 1998-2002. For data analysis, SPSS and EPI-info statistical softwares were used. Results: Bandar Abbas district with Annual Parasite Incidence (API) of 1.7-4.2 per 1000 population had a specific condition and involved 4.1-7.9% of total positive malaria cases in Iran during 1998-2002. The most and least cases occurred during 1998 and 2001, respectively. While during the period of this study 6905 positive malaria cases were reported. The number of villages with positive cases dropped from 102 in 1998 to 55 in 2001. Conclusion: The disease situation indicates a hypoendemic and unstable area. Considering new wave of immigrants from different countries and chance of disease outbreak after heavy precipitation, it should be concered as a suitable biological condition for anopheles mosquitoes maturation. As the district has emigrants from different countries, it must always be kept in mind the danger of malaria epidemies.