O centro de saude como unidade-base do programa de controle da malaria : parte I analise da situacao da malariaLuis Almeida Franco

ABSTRACT

Endemic malaria continues to be one of the major public health problems in Mozambique; lack of information impedes monitoring of preventive measures and thus an improvement in malaria control. In this article; we suggest the use of health units; in particular health centres; as basis for the information system of the national malaria control programme. Health centres should be selected on the basis of their capacity to carry out certain tasks; principally reliable microscopy; so that the quality of information collected can be guaranteed. The health centre should act as a sentinel site; with the responsibility to collect and organize standardized information about malaria in its catchment area. Together; these sentinel sites will constitute a basis for the future national malaria surveillance system. To test the practicability of this idea; a project was implemented in the Jose Macamo Health Centre in Maputo City. It was designed to obtain more systematic information about the clinical and epidemiological features of malaria that is most important for improving malaria control in Mozambique. The project lasted for two years from July 1991. Through the establishment of a malaria clinic; the clinical and epidemiological features of malaria in the centre's catchment area were studied. The results will be published subsequently. In this article; we present an outline of the features of endemic malaria in Maputo City and the principal factors influencing the disease