Antigen-based Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests
Malaria is a curable disease if the patients have access to early diagnosis and prompt treatment. Antigen-based Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) have an important role at the periphery of health services capability because none of the rural clinics has the ability to diagnose malaria on-site due to a lack of microscopes and trained technicians to evaluate blood films. Furthermore, in regions where the disease is not endemic laboratory technologists have very limited experience in detecting and identifying malaria parasites. An ever increasing numbers of travelers from temperate areas each year visit tropical countries and many of them return with a malaria infection. The RDT tests are still regarded as complements to conventional microscopy but with some improvements it may well replace the microscope. The tests are simple and the procedure can be performed on the spot in field conditions. These tests use finger-stick or venous blood, the completed test takes a total of 15–20 minutes, and a laboratory is not needed. The threshold of detection by these rapid diagnostic tests is in the range of 100 parasites/µl of blood compared to 5 by thick film microscopy.
Read more about this topic: Malaria Antigen Detection Tests
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