Spatio-temporal patterns of malaria infection in Bhutan: a country embarking on malaria elimination

Malaria Journal

Research

Saranath Lawpoolsri¹  Pratap Singhasivanon¹  Jaranit Kaewkungwal¹  Kinley Wangdi²  Nicholas J White³  Tassanee Silawan⁴ 

[1] Department of Tropical Hygiene, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand;Department of Tropical Hygiene, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand;Phuentsholing General Hospital, Phuentsholing, Bhutan;Mahidol-Oxford Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand;The Rural Health Training and Research Centre, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand;

关键词: Malaria;    Malaria Transmission;    Malaria Case;    Indoor Residual Spray;    Malaria Incidence;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2875-10-89

 received in 2010-11-03, accepted in 2011-04-16,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAt the verge of elimination of malaria in Bhutan, this study was carried out to analyse the trend of malaria in the endemic districts of Bhutan and to identify malaria clusters at the sub-districts. The findings would aid in implementing the control activities. Poisson regression was performed to study the trend of malaria incidences at district level from 1994 to 2008. Spatial Empirical Bayesian smoothing was deployed to identify clusters of malaria at the sub-district level from 2004 to 2008.ResultsTrend of the overall districts and most of the endemic districts have decreased except Pemagatshel, which has an increase in the trend. Spatial cluster-outlier analysis showed that malaria clusters were mostly concentrated in the central and eastern Bhutan in three districts of Dagana, Samdrup Jongkhar and Sarpang. The disease clusters were reported throughout the year. Clusters extended to the non-transmission areas in the eastern Bhutan.ConclusionsThere is significant decrease in the trend of malaria with the elimination at the sight. The decrease in the trend can be attributed to the success of the control and preventive measures. In order to realize the target of elimination of malaria, the control measure needs to be prioritized in these high-risk clusters of malaria.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Wangdi et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011