Role of Rapid Diagnostic Test in control of clinical malaria in Baghlan province of Afghanistan; A document review

Background: Afghanistan has the world’s third-highest malaria burden. WHO reports reflects that country accounts for 11% of cases in WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. The recent figures reflect that 30,000 new cases of malaria occur annually. Baghlan province located in north-east of Afghanistan and one of Malaria endemic province which malaria is one of victor burn diseases that is a heavy burden on health directory of Baghlan.Since 2007, health post (HP) engaged in malaria case detection and management and the malaria case detection (clinically diagnosed malaria) increased dramatically.Objectives: To confirm all Malaria cases at the community level of Baghlan province till end of 2018. To reduce clinical Malaria to zero in Baghlan province by end of 2019.Materials and Methods: Baghlan public health directorate and Malaria department trained healthcare staffs and community health workers )CHW/HP) on Malaria service delivery and introduced Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) in 2016 to support the early case detection of malaria in health facilities which hasn’t lab and HPs and distributed anti-Malaria drugs, RDT and data collection format. Patients received free diagnosis and treatment in public health facilities (HFs). The technical team conducted regular supervision, monitoring and evaluated the role RDT and healthcare workers on confirm malaria case detection and treatment, and reviewed the data from 2007–2019.Results: The HMIS (Health Management Information System) report, declared that 10,281 Malaria cases detected and enrolled on treatment in 2007; 10,011 (97%) of them were clinically diagnosed at HFs and HPs By introducing RDT in 2016, the clinically diagnosed malaria decreased gradually and reached to 20 cases in 2017 and became Zero in the end of June 2019 in HPs. While the percentage of confirm Malaria increased from 3% in 2007 to 100% in the end of June 2019.Conclusion: The strengthening efforts and RDT including staff commitment contributed significantly in reducing of clinical malaria at HFs and HPs and focused on confirm Malaria. Therefore, we recommend expanding RDT usage to other provinces and similar setting

کلیدواژه ها:

Clinical Malaria ، confirm Malaria ، control approaches