diagnostic

The findings show that laboratory personnel were not satisfied with the prevailing working conditions, which were reported to undermine laboratory performance.

The study was undertaken in Enugu state, southeast Nigeria in March 2009. Data was collected from heads of 74 public and private health facilities on the availability and use of RDTs and ACTs. Also, the availability of RDTs and the types of ACTs that were available in the facilities were documented.

Use of RDTs resulted in a 2-fold reduction in anti-malarial drug prescription at LLHCFs. The study demonstrated that RDT use is feasible at LLHCFs, and can lead to better targetting of malaria treatment.

False positive Pv-pLDH lines in P. falciparum samples with high parasite density occurred in 6/9 P. vivax-specific RDTs. This is of concern as P. falciparum and P. vivax are co-circulating in many regions. The diagnosis of life-threatening P. falciparum malaria may be missed (two-band Pv-pLDH RDT), or the patient may be treated incorrectly with primaquine (three- or four-band RDTs).

Data on costs were collected from 259 patients in 6 health facilities by using exit and in-charge interviews and record reviews during a trial of RDT rollout in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Two malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDT), Parascreen Pan/Pf® and Paracheck Pf®, were tested in rural health centres in Ethiopia against independent expert microscopy (the gold standard).

No abstract available.