During the first four months of the current year (started in March), 36 cases of malaria were reported in the southern Hormozgan Province among Afghan refugees, said Dr. Reza Safari, a senior official at the Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences.
One local person was also identified with the mosquito-borne disease.
About 80% of the cases occurred in Bashagard County, which has the highest number of illegal refugees, Safari said, IRNA reported. The Health Ministry’s latest malaria report indicates that local malaria cases have fallen from 5,594 in 2008 to 366 in 2014, a 94% reduction in six years. The number of cases has dropped to below 10 in southern Kerman Province, where the disease is in the last stages of elimination. In Hormozgan Province the cases are below 50 a year. Most acute cases of malaria occur in the hot seasons.
