A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SIMPLE MICROSCOPY AND A RAPID IMMUNOCHROMATOGRAPHIC TEST IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF MALARIA PARASITAEMIA IN CHILDREN PRESENTING AT UNTH ENUGU

Abstract

Children aged 6 months to 5 years in Nigeria are at greatest risk of
developing complicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria 14,17-21. To
prevent this, early diagnosis and prompt treatment are being emphasized
by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) programme 3-4,40.
This study was done to evaluate the diagnostic performance of a
new rapid immunochromatographic test named Paracheck pf in the
diagnosis of malaria in 380 Nigerian children aged 6 months to 59
months presenting at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital
(UNTH) Enugu with fever and no obvious focus of infection. Paracheck
pf detects histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP2) antigen produced by
Plasmodium falciparum. Using simple microscopy of Giemsa stained
blood films as the “gold standard”, Paracheck pf was found to have the
following diagnostic performance characteristics: sensitivity of 82%,
specificity of 91.5%, Negative predictive value of 91.5%, Positive
predictive value of 82%, a strong positive correlation between parasite
density and test sensitivity; and a detection limit of 397 parasites/ul.
The test is therefore recommended for use in Nigerian children aged
6-59 months in Enugu for the diagnosis of malaria but negative results
should be cautiously interpreted in infants because symptomatic malaria
may occur in these children at parasite densities as low as 100/ul37.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SIMPLE MICROSCOPY AND A RAPID IMMUNOCHROMATOGRAPHIC TEST IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF MALARIA PARASITAEMIA IN CHILDREN PRESENTING AT UNTH ENUGU