Malaria Surveillance System in the Islamic Republic of Iran: History, Structures, and Achievements

Background and Objectives: Iran started malaria elimination campaigns many years ago. The purpose of this study was to review the malaria surveillance system in Iran. Methods: The data of this study were obtained from the surveillance system of the Center for Communicable Disease Control, a review of records, documents, books and published articles, and also interviews with process owners and experts of malaria surveillance in 2017-2019. Results: The surveillance system of malaria in Iran has a coherent structure, in which all identified cases are reported and monitored from the environmental levels to the center by telephone instantly. Considering that the main goals of the malaria program including disease elimination have been obtained, the surveillance system in Iran is currently aiming at strengthening the elimination phase. In this stage, all new cases are also epidemiologically investigated in addition to examination, treatment and follow-up for categorization of the cases in categories of relapse, indigenous, introduced, and induced. Conclusion: The successful implementation of the surveillance system for malaria over time has caused indigenous cases of disease to be limited to three southeastern provinces of the country and there are fewer than 300 new cases a year. Despite success, since the goal of malaria surveillance in Iran is now disease elimination, continuous monitoring of correct implementation of all processes and evaluation of the applied strategies are necessary.