Abstract
BackgroundThe World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends parasitological diagnosis of malaria before treatment, but use of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (mRDTs) by community health workers (CHWs) has not been fully tested within health services in south and central Asia. mRDTs could allow CHWs to diagnose malaria accurately, improving treatment of febrile illness.MethodsA cluster randomised trial in community health services was undertaken in Afghanistan. The primary outcome was the proportion of suspected malaria cases correctly treated for polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed malaria and PCR negative cases receiving no antimalarial drugs measured at the level of the patient. CHWs from 22 clusters (clinics) received standard training on clinical diagnosis and treatment of malaria; 11 clusters randomised to the intervention arm received additional training and were provided with mRDTs. CHWs enrolled cases of suspected malaria, and the mRDT results and treatments were compared to blind-read PCR diagnosis.ResultsIn total, 256 CHWs enrolled 2400 patients with 2154 (89.8%) evaluated. In the intervention arm, 75.3% (828/1099) were treated appropriately vs. 17.5% (185/1055) in the control arm (cluster adjusted risk ratio: 3.72, 95% confidence interval 2.40–5.77; p < 0.001). In the control arm, 85.9% (164/191) with confirmed Plasmodium vivax received chloroquine compared to 45.1% (70/155) in the intervention arm (p < 0.001). Overuse of chloroquine in the control arm resulted in 87.6% (813/928) of those with no malaria (PCR negative) being treated vs. 10.0% (95/947) in the intervention arm, p < 0.001. In the intervention arm, 71.4% (30/42) of patients with P. falciparum did not receive artemisinin-based combination therapy, partly because operational sensitivity of the RDTs was low (53.2%, 38.1–67.9). There was high concordance between recorded RDT result and CHW prescription decisions: 826/950 (87.0%) with a negative test were not prescribed an antimalarial. Co-trimoxazole was prescribed to 62.7% of malaria negative patients in the intervention arm and 15.0% in the control arm.ConclusionsWhile introducing mRDT reduced overuse of antimalarials, this action came with risks that need to be considered before use at scale: an appreciable proportion of malaria cases will be missed by those using current mRDTs. Higher sensitivity tests could be used to detect all cases. Overtreatment with antimalarial drugs in the control arm was replaced with increased antibiotic prescription in the intervention arm, resulting in a probable overuse of antibiotics.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01403350. Prospectively registered.
Highlights
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends parasitological diagnosis of malaria before treatment, but use of malaria rapid diagnostic tests by community health workers (CHWs) has not been fully tested within health services in south and central Asia. mRDTs could allow Community health worker (CHW) to diagnose malaria accurately, improving treatment of febrile illness
Patients were enrolled between October 2011 and May 2012, 22 clinics were randomised and of the 256 CHWs, 222 (86.7%) received training in the study data collection methods, consented and enrolled patients
Currently available mRDTs may miss a substantial proportion of cases of malaria
Summary
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends parasitological diagnosis of malaria before treatment, but use of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (mRDTs) by community health workers (CHWs) has not been fully tested within health services in south and central Asia. mRDTs could allow CHWs to diagnose malaria accurately, improving treatment of febrile illness. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends parasitological diagnosis of malaria before treatment, but use of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (mRDTs) by community health workers (CHWs) has not been fully tested within health services in south and central Asia. Malaria rapid diagnostic tests (mRDTs) are increasingly used across health service settings to improve diagnosis and treatment of febrile illness by detecting malaria [1]. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends universal coverage with diagnostic testing for malaria to ensure that patients are appropriately prescribed artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) and other antimalarial drugs [2] and improving treatment of other causes of febrile illness. There is much less evidence from Asia, where more than one billion people live in malaria endemic areas [9] which are co-endemic for P. falciparum and P. vivax and where the proportion of febrile patients who have malaria is generally much lower than in Africa. Afghanistan is typical of much of low-resource south Asia, where P. vivax makes up around 85–95% of malaria cases [10]
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