Table 1.

World Health Organization Criteria for Screening

The condition sought should be an important health problem for the individual and community. There should be an accepted treatment or useful intervention for patients with the disease. The natural history of the disease should be adequately understood. There should be a latent or early symptomatic stage. There should be a suitable and acceptable screening test or examination. Facilities for diagnosis and treatment should be available. There should be an agreed policy on whom to treat as patients. Treatment started at an early stage should be of more benefit than treatment started later. The cost should be economically balanced in relation to possible expenditure on medical care as a whole. Case finding should be a continuing process and not a once and for all project.