J Arthropod-Borne Dis, March 2018, 12(1): 100                                  H Ebrahimzadeh-Leylabadlo: Malaria Eliminating … 

 

100 
 

             http://jad.tums.ac.ir 

             Published Online: March 18, 2018 

 

Letter to the Editor 

Malaria Eliminating: What Lies Ahead of Iran? 
 

Hamed Ebrahimzadeh-Leylabadlo 
 

Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical 

Sciences, Tabriz, Iran 
 

(Received 6 June 2017; accepted 24 Jan 2018) 

 

Dear Editor-in-Chief 
 

In recent years, Iran has made significant 

advances on the fight against malaria with a 

stated objective of complete elimination. Ac-

cording to the report of Iranian Ministry of 

Health and Medical Education, the annual 

number of malaria cases have been reduced 

from 12294 in 2000 to 787 in 2012, 366 cases 

in 2014 and only 150 cases reported in 2015. In 

2009, WHO malaria report, announced Iran 

was in the pre-elimination phase (1). 

Malaria incidence had significant reduction 

during last years, however, Iran is facing a num-

ber of operational problems in a fight against 

Malaria. Around 90% of the locally transmit-

ted malaria cases happen over the southeast-

ern endemic regions in Iran every year (2). 

The imported malaria cases and cross-border 

movement of population from malaria-endem-

ic countries particularly Pakistan and Afghan-

istan that enter to Sistan and Baluchestan and 

Khorasan-Razavi Provinces illegally via the 

eastern Iranian borders. The burden of most 

infectious diseases, including malaria, leish-

maniasis, and tuberculosis in Afghanistan is 

more noteworthy than in Iran and individuals 

Afghani are most of the migrants in Iran (3). 

On the other hand, global climatic change 

is expected to increase the incidence of vec-

tor-borne diseases, especially malaria. Many 

countries in the world including Iran have been 

hit by climate change and diseases like malar-

ia and leishmaniasis may change pattern and 

appear in provinces not prevalent before (4). 

Thus, despite the reduction of malaria cases in 

recent years, the risk of reintroduction is high  

 

 

and need to be continued cross-border collabo-

rations with endemic neighbors to pursuing the 

goal of completely malaria elimination by 2020. 

 

Acknowledgements 
 

I would like to thank the authorities of 

Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research 

Centre, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, 

Tabriz, Iran for their support. In addition, I 

am extremely grateful to Dr Teimour Haz-

ratian in Department of Parasitology and My-

cology, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz Univer-

sity of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran, for his 

helpful comments on manuscript. 

 

References 
 

1. Ebrahimzadeh-Leylabadlo H, Samadi-Kafil 
H, Asgharzadeh M (2016) Malaria in 

Iran: Is the elimination phase? Ann 

Trop Med Public Health. 10(4): 1062. 

2. McKelvie WR, Haghdoost AA, Raeisi A 
(2012) Defining and detecting malaria 

epidemics in south-east Iran. Malar J. 

11: 81. 

3. Pourhossein B, Irani AD, Mostafavi E 
(2015) Major infectious diseases af-

fecting the Afghan immigrant pop-

ulation of Iran: a systematic review 

and meta-analysis. Epidemiol Health. 

37: e2015002. 

4. Khanjani N (2016) The effects of climate 
change on human health in Iran. Int J 

Public Health. 3: 38–41. 

*Corresponding author: Dr Hamed Ebrahimzadeh-
Leylabadlo, E-mail: Hamedebr7@gmail.com 

http://jad.tums.ac.ir/