Malaria cases estimation measurement in ten municipalities of Nari o Pacific coast in 2009 Estimación del sub-registro de casos de paludismo en 10 municipios de la costa del Pacífico nari ense durante 2009

Introduction. The complete and effective malaria cases data collection is an essential question to make operative plans, as well as to develop and apply preventive and control policies. However, in Colombia, not all identified cases are notified and not all of them are incorporated into the surveillance system. This underreport represents a serious issue to decision makers. Objective. To estimate error type and quantity committed to complete the malaria individual cases notification form and its digitization level through the notification form use and monitoring, in ten municipalities of Nari o in 2009. Materials and methods. This is a descriptive, transversal study with a no probabilistic and convenience diagnostic and treatment sites sample. From this sites notification forms copies were taken to compare case-by-case with the Public Health Surveillance System notification database. Proportions were calculated. Results. From 2,816 positive cases notification forms it was showed that in more than 60% of cases information about residence municipality, origin municipality and occupation variables were not reported. Case-by-case comparison revealed that 845 (30.0%) notification forms were not digitized at all. Information of variables such as residence municipality name and onset of symptoms date were neither complete nor exact in more than 50% of cases. Conclusions. The use of notification forms with copy will reveal notification underreport due to lack of digitization. A third of cases should be recovered. Introducción. La recolección de información completa y efectiva de casos de paludismo es fundamental para elaborar planes operativos, así como desarrollo y aplicación de políticas de prevención y control. Sin embargo, no todos los casos identificados son notificados y no todos son incorporados en el sistema de información. El sub-registro representa un problema para los tomadores de decisiones. Objetivo. Estimar el tipo y cantidad de errores cometidos al llenar la ficha de notificación de casos de paludismo y su nivel de digitación mediante uso y seguimiento de la ficha de notificación en 10 municipios nari enses durante 2009. Materiales y métodos. Estudio descriptivo, transversal en muestra no probabilística, de conveniencia, de puestos de diagnostico y tratamiento. Se tomaron copias de fichas y de la base de datos de notificación del sistema de vigilancia y se efectúo comparación caso a caso. Se calcularon proporciones. Resultados. Sobre 2.816 fichas de notificación de casos positivos, se evidenció que en más del 60% de los casos no se reporto inform