malaria elimination program: absence of asymptomatic malaria and low parasitic in endemic area of rudan district, hormozgan province, iran

Introduction: malaria is a major global public health problem and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in many countries. malaria elimination is the common goal of world health organization and the health system in iran. following a decline in malaria cases in recent years, the malaria elimination program, technically supported by the who, has initiated since 2009 in iran. in order to successfully implement a malaria elimination program, all positive cases particularly low parasitemia and asymptomatic cases are required to be detected. the main objective of this study was to identify asymptomatic malaria infection in a low transmission area in rudan district, hormozgan province, southern iran. methods: in this cross-sectional study a total of 200 blood samples were randomly collected from symptomless residents of rudan to evaluate plasmodium infection rate where microscope, rdt and nested-pcr techniques were used. results: according to the analysis of microscopic methods, rdt and nested-pcr, no asymptomatic cases were seen among the participants. conclusion: the results of this investigation reveal that malaria elimination program is administrable in rudan district irrespective of low-parasitemia and asymptomatic cases.