Efficacy of Rapid Diagnostic Tests for Malaria in Children of Rural Ghana

In 2015, 88% of new cases and 90% of deaths due to malaria were in the WHO Africa region, mostly among children. Historically, making a definitive diagnosis of malaria required microscopic examination of a carefully prepared blood sample by a skilled laboratorian. Malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) have become available to the public for diagnosis of malaria in rural Ghana and require no laboratory infrastructure, allowing them to be effectively deployed in rural settings, including private retail drug shops. Inaccurate RDTs can result in misdiagnosis of malaria, leading to overtreatment or undertreatment, wasted resources and drug resistance. We sought to determine how locally available RDTs perform compared to standard microscopy for the diagnosis of malaria parasitemia in children in the Barekese sub-District in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, West Africa.