Abstract
Malaria is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) world malaria report for 2018, there were 228 million cases and 405,000 deaths worldwide. This paper reviews and highlights the importance of accurate, sensitive and affordable diagnostic methods in the fight against malaria. The PubMed online database was used to search for publications that examined the different diagnostic tests for malaria. Currently used diagnostic methods include microscopy, rapid diagnostic tests (RDT), and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Upcoming methods were identified as loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA), isothermal thermophilic helicase-dependent amplification (tHDA), saliva-based test for nucleic-acid amplification, saliva-based test for Plasmodium protein detection, urine malaria test (UMT), and transdermal hemozoin detection. RDT, despite its increasing false negative, is still the most feasible diagnostic test because it is easy to use, fast, and does not need expensive equipment. Noninvasive tests that do not require a blood sample, but use saliva or urine, are some of the recent tests under development that have the potential to aid malaria control and elimination. Emerging resistance to anti-malaria drugs and to insecticides used against vectors continues to thwart progress in controlling malaria. Therefore, future innovation will be required to enable the application of more sensitive and affordable methods in resource-limited settings.
Highlights
Humans have been plagued with malaria, a disease that seems to prevail over strategies used to combat it
Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for treatment of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria, and ACT or chloroquine are recommended for P. vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae and P. knowlesi malaria infections
Saliva-Based Test with Nucleic-Acid Amplification. This saliva-based malaria diagnosis involves the detection of a Plasmodium gene, 18S rRNA or P. falciparum dihydrofolate reductase gene in saliva using a nested-polymerase chain reaction
Summary
Humans have been plagued with malaria, a disease that seems to prevail over strategies used to combat it. There are four well-established species of the malaria parasite that infect humans, namely Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae. The WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria aims, by 2030, to reduce malaria case incidence and mortality rates globally by 90%; to eliminate malaria from 35 countries in which malaria was transmitted in 2015; and to prevent the re-establishment of malaria in all countries that became malaria-free [8]. These targets, though ambitious, are important to set in order to challenge and remind the world that malaria is an important public health problem in need of serious and expanded efforts. The Lancet commission emphasized the importance of ultrasensitive rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) as essential tools in the identification of asymptomatic infections and infections in pregnant women, and the need for novel diagnostic tools that do not require a finger-prick blood sample [9]
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