Malaria J
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Comparative Study
Field and laboratory comparative evaluation of rapid malaria diagnostic tests versus traditional and molecular techniques in India.
Malaria presents a diagnostic challenge in most tropical countries. Microscopy remains the gold standard for diagnosing malaria infections in clinical practice and research. However, microscopy is labour intensive, requires significant skills and time, which causes therapeutic delays. The objective of obtaining result quickly from the examination of blood samples from patients with suspected malaria is now made possible with the introduction of rapid malaria diagnostic tests (RDTs). Several RDTs are available, which are fast, reliable and simple to use and can detect Plasmodium falciparum and non-falciparum infections or both. A study was conducted in tribal areas of central India to measure the overall performance of several RDTs for diagnosis of P. falciparum and non-falciparum infections in comparison with traditional and molecular techniques. Such data will be used to guide procurement decisions of policy makers and programme managers. ⋯ The results in this study show comparative performance between microscopy, various RDTs and PCR. Despite some inherent limitation in the five RDTs tested, First Response clearly has an advantage over other RDTs. The results suggest that RDTs could play and will play an important role in malaria diagnosis.