Some probable factors affecting the malaria situation before and at the beginning of a pre-elimination program in southeastern Iran

The area southeast of Iran still copes with malaria as an unstable infectious disease and includes the most autochthonous malaria reports in the country. This comprehensive study was carried out for the evaluation of environmental factors, welfare indicators and health facilities on the malaria situation before and at the beginning of a pre-elimination programme in this area. The probable factors affecting the malaria situation, including the water-pipe network, electricity, rainfall, long-lasting integrated nets (LLINs), indoor residual spraying and malaria diagnosis-treatment centres were analysed using SPSS software. The Pearson correlation test showed no significant correlation between some factors such as piped water networks, annual precipitation, number of sprayed villages and autochthonous cases as well as autochthonous foci. But a significant correlation between electricity coverage, number of diagnoses of malaria-treatment centres and autochthonous cases\foci was observed. Also, the number of distributed LLINs didn't have any correlation with the number of total malaria cases, but a significant correlation between LLINs and autochthonous foci was seen. Detailed studies on the correlation of various variables, such as piped water, spraying coverage and number of malaria diagnosis centres, with the malaria situation is limited in Asia and other parts of the world. This study and others like it can help malaria managers and directors in the more accurate allocation of financial resources.