Determination of Efficiency of the Rapid Diagnostic Test Kit (SD-USA) in Diagnosing Plasmodium Falciparum Infection Fast against Microscopy

Abstract

Severe Plasmodium falciparum infection is a common problem which is associated with various degrees of morbidity and mortality especially in children under five years of age and pregnant mothers. It remains a major public health challenge in Nigeria. This research was done to compare rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for malaria diagnosis with routine microscopy in guiding treatment decisions for febrile patients. A randomized study with 300 patients in Outpatient departments at General Hospital Kagara, Niger state was done using the RDT procedure as the primary and microscopy as reference standard. Two hundred and two patients were found to be positive (202 +ve), eighty-eight patients were negative (88-ve), while ten out of all were non determinant (10 ND). The microscopic method gave a total of two hundred and eight patients positive (208+ve), ninety were negative (90-ve) and out of the microscopic results two were stained poorly and accurate reading was not able to be established, given rise to 2 Non Determinant results (2 ND). Relatively, analysis shows that false positive results using the RDTs in comparison with microscopy was 1.33%, false negative result obtained was 1.66%, true positive was 66% against the microscopy which was 69.33%, while the true negative percentage was 27.66%. The percentage error is less than or equal to 3.3%.The sensitivity of the RDTs in this study was found to be 97.53% while the specificity was 95.40%.whencompared with the microscopy which was found to be 99.04%. with 0.5% percentage error. The infectivity rate as at time and season of study was 37% for children under 5 years (U5), 13% for pregnant mothers (PM) attending antenatal care, 19.33% for all other age group excluding U5 and PM. Use of rapid diagnostic tests, with basic training will yield high proficiency and accuracy in malaria management and reduce anti-malarial drug abuse.