Evaluation of microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests for diagnosing malaria among febrile subjects in Ezinihitte Local Government Area, Imo State, nigeria
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Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Institute of Biology
Abstract
Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria, the country accounting for
the highest devastation worldwide. This study aimed at evaluating the performance of
microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for diagnosis of malaria. A total of 443
suspected Plasmodium falciparum infected patients in hospitals in selected communities of
Ezinihitte Local Government Area south eastern Nigeria between January and June 2014 were
examined by using microscopy and RDTs. Thick and thin blood smears made on clean slides
from venipuncture blood collected from febrile subjects have been examined for the presence
of malarial parasites. Serological diagnosis was performed using Carestart, SD Bioline and
Antec kits. The overall prevalence of the three RDTs were Carestart pf (41.8%), SD Bioline pf
(52.8%), and Antec pf/pv (25.3%) as against microscopy the standard (44.9%). The varied
prevalence observed from the three kits did not differ statistically (p>0.05).The females
appeared to have more infected (42.4%) than the males (39.6%) with no significant difference
between the diagnostic methods. The overall sensitivities of Carestart pf, SD Bioline pf and
Antec pf/pv were 71.9%, 86.9% and 50.8% respectively while their corresponding
specificities were 82.8%, 75.0%, and 95.5% respectively. SD Bioline HRP2 based test
demonstrated a superior sensitivity compared to microscopy. Some RDTS can be useful
alternatives to microscopy in the diagnosis of P. falciparum especially in resource limited
communities.
Description
Keywords
Plasmodium falciparum, RDTs, microscopy, diagnosis, Ezinihitte
Citation
Microscopy, RDT, Eziniihitte, Imo State