Abstract
Background: The Focused screening and treatment (FSAT) has been identified as one of the key approaches for reducing the malaria burden in Tanzania. However, the diagnostic performance of the local standard health system microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) for the malaria infections is yet to be established. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the performance of the local standard health system microscopy and RDTs in comparison to that of the gold standard modality through the re-examination of blood slide microscopy findings. Methods: We used the paired RDTs and standard health system microscopy results from the participants screened in the FSAT during 2015–2016. With the gold standard modality as reference, the results of local standard health system microscopy and RDTs were evaluated according to their sensitivity, specificity and reliability.Results: A total of 1,497 paired standard health system microscopy and RDTs results were analysed. Of these, 679 (45.4%) samples and 818 (54.6%) samples were from the high transmission areas (HTA) and low transmission areas (LTA) in the Rufiji District of south eastern Tanzania, respectively. With the gold standard as the reference, the sensitivity of RDTs were higher than those of standard health system microscopy (87.10% vs 76.88%) and (86.99% vs 65.04%) in the HTA and LTA, respectively. Further, the false-negative rates of RDTs were lower than those of standard microscopy in both HTA (12.90% vs 13.01%) and LTA (23.12% vs 34.96%). Conclusions: RDTs have better performance than the standard health system microscopy in terms of sensitivity and specificity for FSAT in study areas in Tanzania.
Assessment of malaria in pregnancy using rapid diagnostic tests and its association with HIV infection and hematologic parameters in South-Eastern Nigeria
