Abstract:
At peripheral health facility levels, the diagnosis of malaria is difficult due to lack of infrastructure. In the study reported here, the diagnostic performance of a batch of ‘DiaMed OptiMAL-IT’ (Cressier, Switzerland) rapid antigen tests were examined in parallel with routine microscopy for a select population of high risk individuals:
202 pregnant women and 200 children less than 5 years old in an endemic setting in Ghana. Results of both diagnostic methods were compared to that of cross-checking microscopy, taken as gold standard, at the Navrongo Health
Research Centre. Of the 402 patients, 218 (54.2%) were
confirmed with Plasmodium falciparum infections by cross-checking. All 218 patients (100%) were accurately diagnosed with malaria by routine microscopy. Of these,
151 (69.3%) were positive by DiaMed OptiMAL-IT test (26 false positives, 67 false negatives). DiaMed OptiMALIT had the following performance indicators for detection