MALARIA IN KARACHI AND OTHER AREAS IN SINDH

Malaria

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Malaria occurs almost everywhere. It is estimated that 300 to 500 million cases occur all over the world with a mortality of 1%. 90% of the cases are restricted to African countries, India, Brazil, Sri-Lanka, Afghanistan, Vietnam and Colombia [1,2].

There are no statistics available for the whole country in Pakistan although some organizations and institutions do keep their own figures. Due to the absence of comprehensive data, We in the Department of Community Health Sciences and Occupational Medicine at Hamdard College of Medicine and Dentistry desired to collect morbidity, parasitological and entomological data about the occurrence of malaria in Karachi and two other areas in Sindh. The study was conducted during 1998 – 2001 and objective was to determine the prevalence of malaria in Karachi and two more areas in Sindh to collect parasitological and entomological data about malaria and to find out diagnostic and therapeutic modalities adopted by the GP’s for diagnosis and treatment of the disease.