Journal of Tropical Diseases & Public Health

Abstract

Comparative Evaluation of Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits Commercially Available in Parts of South Eastern Nigeria

Dozie UW and Chukwuocha UM

In 2010 world Health Organization (WHO) introduced Test Treat Track initiative for the management of malaria using antigen detecting rapid diagnostic test kits (RDTs) as a parasite based diagnosis to address the need for immediate diagnosis of malaria especially in remote limited areas. A diagnostic study was conducted in Imo state, Nigeria to evaluate the performance of four different RDTs in symptomatic patients .Patients were screened for malaria using blood samples collected from the at selected health from July 2013 to December 2013 facilities. Patients were tested with two Histidine rich protein RDTs and a two combination of Histidine rich protein 2 (HRP 2) antigens and Parasite lactose dehydrogenase enzyme (pLDH) RDTs. Microscopy was used as gold standard. Out of 100 participants enrolled and screened for malaria, 70 (70%) tested positive by Microscopy, 72 (72%), 72 (72%) tested positive by two of the HRP 2 RDTs respectively while 67 (67%), 67 (67%) tested positive with the HRP 2/ pLDH RDTs HRP-2 RDTs are more sensitive than HRP 2/ pLDH RDTs and could be a suitable alternative to microscopy to screen endemic malaria in rural Nigeria.