title: Active case-finding of communicable diseases in the south of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
abstract: In the Fars province of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we established the Communicable Diseases Committee which determined 24 priority infectious diseases for active reporting. The Committee chose laboratory criteria for diagnosis of the selected diseases, trained reporters and follow-up staff and invited cooperation from heads of private and government laboratories. Cases were identified by the reporting staff and patients were interviewed by the follow-up staff, who also requested patients to complete an epidemiological questionnaire. Results were returned to the district health care centres and to the Committee for data analysis. Case-findings in 16 out of the 24 selected diseases showed an increase of up to 30 times compared to passive case-finding. This was due more to the greater efficiency of the method than to cohort epidemics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Nemazi Hospital, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karimi
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Kadivar
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fararoee
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alborzi
mesh_terms: D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D016358:Contact Tracing / Q000379:methods*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D003906:Developing Countries; D018563:Disease Notification / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D017149:Private Sector; D015397:Program Evaluation; D017150:Public Sector; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires