What is it about?
Accurate reporting of malaria cases is very important for decision makers. Problem arises when we have more than one surveillance or reporting systems. In particular if persons entering data in these parallel systems and reporting channels are different, variances may occur. We have compared two parallel reporting system for malaria from same districts of Pakistan from 2013 to 2017.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that there are major differences in the reported number of malaria cases annually from the two different reporting systems. Almost double number of cases are reported in the malaria information system as compared to the DHIS. The domestic funding is based on diseases prioritization based on DHIS data so lesser number of reported cases can result in less priority and decreased domestic resource allocation for malaria.
Perspectives
Writing this article was a great pleasure as it has co-authors with whom I have had long standing collaborations. I hope this article makes what people might think is a boring, slightly abstract area like malaria surveillance, kind of interesting and maybe even exciting. We are still struggling in controlling malaria in Pakistan. Better surveillance and accurate reporting can be major contributing factor. More than anything else, and if nothing else, I hope you find this article thought-provoking.
Hammad Habib
Ministry of National Health Services Regulations & Coordination Islamabad Pakistan
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Two parallel reporting systems for malaria surveillance in Pakistan, 2013–17: is exact burden reflected?, F1000Research, December 2018, Faculty of 1000, Ltd.,
DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.17202.1.
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