Design and Creation of a Malaria Diagnosing Expert System

ABSTRACT

Malaria kills about one million, two hundred thousand (1.2 million) people every year. Medical doctors are in limited supply, and provide somewhat expensive services. There is, therefore, the need to build computer-based systems that can assist doctors in diagnosing and recommending treatment for malaria to fill the supply gap and reduce the attendant costs, upon which this research is focused. The expert system would diagnose and recommend treatment of malaria from symptoms and blood test result provided by user patient. The expert system was created based on medical expert information collected through structured interviews, extensive literature review, and adopting the waterfall software development method. The system is towards reducing deaths associated with malaria and towards improved health care services, and is a guide to designing similar systems.