Accuracy of the health information system on malaria surveillance in Vietnam

Abstract

The health information system (HIS) is a key component of control programs and its accuracy is necessary for the assessment of disease risks, the formulation of priorities and the evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of different interventions. In order to assess the quality of the HIS in estimating malaria morbidity in Vietnam, we compared data obtained by a 2-year active (ACD) and passive case detection (PCD) study with those routinely collected at the local commune health centres (CHC) at three sites having different malaria epidemiology. The majority of malaria cases (80-95%) detected by ACD were missed by the HIS. Similarly, most malaria cases (50-90%) detected by PCD were also missed by the HIS, and this was proportional to the number of active private practitioners. Reasons for this low sensitivity are low CHC attendance, high attendance at private health facilities, widespread self-medication and attendance at central health facilities. In conclusion, although malaria has sharply decreased in Vietnam over the past 10 years, the current HIS greatly underestimates the malaria burden. Involvement of the private sector and the establishment of sentinel sites might improve the quality of data and the relevance of HIS in malaria control.

Human malaria in the highlands of Yemen

“…The present data come from passive case detection among febrile patients presenting for treatment. Parasitaemic but asymptomatic individuals, who may be common in areas of high transmission -where many people can develop protective immunity against symptoms during malarial infection (Branch et al, 2005;Erhart et al, 2007) -are unlikely to have been detected in the present study. Moreover, there may be other common causes of fever in Yemen and those causes may not be homogeneously distributed throughout the country.…”

Cross-Border Malaria: A Major Obstacle for Malaria Elimination

“…In addition, many border areas are inhabited by ethnic minorities (Prothero, 1999;Erhart et al, 2005) with limited formal education (Erhart et al, 2007) and less access to health education efforts. The Cross-Border Malaria: A Major Obstacle for Malaria Elimination impact of different national policies for control and prevention in neighbouring countries is potentially causing a lack of political will to invest in border areas.…”

The Global Public Health Significance of Plasmodium vivax

“…The more conservative categorization that is also applied here, of unstable transmission equating to less than 0.1 cases per 1000 p.a. allowed for less confidence in the fidelity of the prevalence source information and accounted for inaccuracies in district or provincial level reporting Erhart et al, 2007;Sharma, 2007).…”