Spatial Analysis and Modelling of Malaria Trend in Si Sa Ket Province, Thailand

Abstract

Malaria is a public health problem in tropical regions. The Regional Health office has a program to educate residents about what malaria disease is, how to reduce malaria infection and who have no immunity or little to malaria, such as young children and pregnant women or even who have knowledge about malaria. The overall Si Sa Ket malaria prevalence was still high in the Khun Han district, with P. vivax at 74.0 % and P. falciparum at 24.5%. Most of them were agricultural and aged around 16 – 45 years. A factor related to severe malaria in Si Sa Ket province was that infection in males was 2.49x more than in females (95% Confidence interval (CI) = 1.11-2.45), Military personnel were 2.93x more likely to be infected than in other occupations (95%CI = 1.45-6.57) and mixed of Plasmodium species infection about 3.34x more than other Plasmodium species (95%CI= 0.31-0.73). The outcome of this study can be applied to the malaria surveillance system cooperatively achieved by the Vector-borne Disease Control Project with the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand when comparing infection rates reported in similar studies. In addition, the results of this study indicate overall that the efforts of the Department of Health are going well. The low rate of sick individuals shows that the residents received enough information to get an infection of malaria. This report intends to provide beneficial information to the inhabitants and locals of Si Sa Ket Province Health Department to improve other malaria-prevention programs.