%0 Journal Article
%T The burden of malaria in Sudan: incidence, mortality and disability ¨C adjusted life ¨C years
%A Safa I Abdalla
%A Elfatih M Malik
%A Kamil M Ali
%J Malaria Journal
%D 2007
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1475-2875-6-97
%X A search for local studies and reports providing epidemiological data on malaria in Sudan was conducted. Preliminary estimates of incidence rate, case fatality rate and mortality rate were developed from the data found. The preliminary estimates were processed in the disease modelling computer software, DisMod II, to produce internally consistent mortality and incidence rates, which were used to calculate DALYs lost due to malaria.Malaria incidence in Sudan was estimated to be about 9 million episodes in 2002 and the number of deaths due to malaria was about 44,000. 2,877,000 DALYs were lost in Sudan in 2002 due to malaria mortality, episodes, anaemia and neurological sequelae. Children under five years of age had the highest burden. Males had the highest incidence and mortality, but females lost more DALYs.Formal health system data underestimated malaria burden. The burden estimates can be useful in informing decision making, although uncertainty around them needs to be quantified. Epidemiological research is needed to fill data gaps and update the estimates.Estimating the burden of malaria is highly needed for evidence based planning of malaria control. In Sudan, malaria has been the subject of a large amount of epidemiological, entomological and biomedical research. Malaria surveillance, as part of the general reporting of health events from health facilities or specific surveillance for epidemic preparedness, provided a wide range of information. This resulted in multiple and diverse sources of information about malaria burden in Sudan, each source serving the purpose for which it was established. The problems with these sources are non-representativeness, variability of the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic criteria used and variability of the indices measured. Some may suffer from underreporting. These sources, therefore, could not directly provide a single valid national indicator of malaria burden. Official figures of incidence and mortality refl
%U http://www.malariajournal.com/content/6/1/97