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The Challenges of the Malaria Elimination Program in the South East of Iran: A Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Despite all the efforts made to control and eliminate malaria in Iran, this disease is still considered as a priority health problem in the South East of Iran. We aimed to determine the cultural obstacles which have prevented the elimination of malaria in this region. METHOD: This study...

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Autores principales: Soofi, Khodamorad, Khanjani, Narges, Kamiabi, Fatemeh
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6643018/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31346539
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author Soofi, Khodamorad
Khanjani, Narges
Kamiabi, Fatemeh
author_facet Soofi, Khodamorad
Khanjani, Narges
Kamiabi, Fatemeh
author_sort Soofi, Khodamorad
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Despite all the efforts made to control and eliminate malaria in Iran, this disease is still considered as a priority health problem in the South East of Iran. We aimed to determine the cultural obstacles which have prevented the elimination of malaria in this region. METHOD: This study was carried out through qualitative content analysis. Purposeful sampling was done from people who had malaria or were involved with malaria patients in 2015, in Sarbaz City, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Eastern Iran. Data were collected through interviews using open questions and continued until data saturation. RESULTS: The most important barriers in malaria prevention was delay in visiting health centers, delay in diagnosis and treatment due to superstitious beliefs, lack of information about the disease, misdiagnosis and fake doctors. Other obstacles were lack of trust and cooperation with interventions offered by the health system, lack of proper use of the available facilities to prevent malaria and commuting in the high-risk neighbor countries. CONCLUSION: Raising awareness in people, officials and health workers about malaria and preventive health interventions as well as health risks associated with fake doctors, following up and re-examination of peripheral blood smear in suspected cases, establishing malaria control stations in border areas and specific measures to refer immigrants and people crossing the border toward malaria diagnosis stations is suggested.
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spelling pubmed-66430182019-07-25 The Challenges of the Malaria Elimination Program in the South East of Iran: A Qualitative Study Soofi, Khodamorad Khanjani, Narges Kamiabi, Fatemeh J Arthropod Borne Dis Original Article BACKGROUND: Despite all the efforts made to control and eliminate malaria in Iran, this disease is still considered as a priority health problem in the South East of Iran. We aimed to determine the cultural obstacles which have prevented the elimination of malaria in this region. METHOD: This study was carried out through qualitative content analysis. Purposeful sampling was done from people who had malaria or were involved with malaria patients in 2015, in Sarbaz City, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Eastern Iran. Data were collected through interviews using open questions and continued until data saturation. RESULTS: The most important barriers in malaria prevention was delay in visiting health centers, delay in diagnosis and treatment due to superstitious beliefs, lack of information about the disease, misdiagnosis and fake doctors. Other obstacles were lack of trust and cooperation with interventions offered by the health system, lack of proper use of the available facilities to prevent malaria and commuting in the high-risk neighbor countries. CONCLUSION: Raising awareness in people, officials and health workers about malaria and preventive health interventions as well as health risks associated with fake doctors, following up and re-examination of peripheral blood smear in suspected cases, establishing malaria control stations in border areas and specific measures to refer immigrants and people crossing the border toward malaria diagnosis stations is suggested. Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2019-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6643018/ /pubmed/31346539 Text en Copyright© Iranian Society of Medical Entomology & Tehran University of Medical Sciences http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Soofi, Khodamorad
Khanjani, Narges
Kamiabi, Fatemeh
The Challenges of the Malaria Elimination Program in the South East of Iran: A Qualitative Study
title The Challenges of the Malaria Elimination Program in the South East of Iran: A Qualitative Study
title_full The Challenges of the Malaria Elimination Program in the South East of Iran: A Qualitative Study
title_fullStr The Challenges of the Malaria Elimination Program in the South East of Iran: A Qualitative Study
title_full_unstemmed The Challenges of the Malaria Elimination Program in the South East of Iran: A Qualitative Study
title_short The Challenges of the Malaria Elimination Program in the South East of Iran: A Qualitative Study
title_sort challenges of the malaria elimination program in the south east of iran: a qualitative study
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6643018/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31346539
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