The data were analyzed and used centrally with little or no feedback to the source of the information and with no impact on local activities. The World Health Organization soon recognized, however, that information systems are a vital element for strengthening the national and local capacities for assessing malaria situations, for selecting appropriate control measures, and for adapting activities to changes in the malaria situation. It was seen that information systems should therefore be reoriented to deal with malaria and decentralized in such a way that information is available to and used by those who need it. Each of these different types of data and information has a spatial basis. It was, therefore, decided that it was important that an information system to be used for malaria control should be able to deal with geographic aspects of information.
Software is relatively expensive in relation to the budgets of malaria control programs.
Expansion of GIS use will probably decrease its cost. In the meantime, a compromise would be to use available shareware, or to have a software tailored for use in malaria control programs by a nonprofit organization. There exists at present a lack of trained personal. The new windowed interfaces, however, are easier to use and will speed up the process of training. GIS is not a tool designed to increase the quality of data.