Open AccessActive case-finding of communicable diseases in the South of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Author(s) -
Abdollah Karimi,
Mohammad Kadivar,
M Fararoee,
Alireza Alborzi
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
eastern mediterranean health journal/eastern mediterranean health journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1687-1634
pISSN - 1020-3397
DOI - 10.26719/2000.6.2-3.487
Subject(s) - islamic republic , islam , traditional medicine , medicine , environmental health , geography , archaeology
In the Fars province of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we established the Communicable Diseases Committee which determined 24 priority infectious diseases for active reporting. The Committee chose laboratory criteria for diagnosis of the selected diseases, trained reporters and follow-up staff and invited cooperation from heads of private and government laboratories. Cases were identified by the reporting staff and patients were interviewed by the follow-up staff, who also requested patients to complete an epidemiological questionnaire. Results were returned to the district health care centres and to the Committee for data analysis. Case-findings in 16 out of the 24 selected diseases showed an increase of up to 30 times compared to passive case-finding. This was due more to the greater efficiency of the method than to cohort epidemics