How Do We Best Diagnose Malaria in Africa?
Year: 2012
Type: editorial
Abstract: For many decades, the cornerstone of malaria management in Africa was to treat all febrile children with chloroquine. With high-level resistance to chloroquine and improved means of malaria diagnosis, recommendations for the management of malaria in Africa have changed in two important ways in the last few years. First, recommended therapy for uncomplicated falciparum malaria has moved to highly effective artemisininbased combination therapies. 1 Second, it is now recommended that the treatment of malaria be confined to parasitologically confirmed cases. This recommendation requires the availability of reliable diagnostic tests. The gold standard test for the diagnosis of malaria is microscopy. Evaluation of Giemsastained thick smears, when performed by expert microscopists, provides accurate diagnosis of malaria, although assuring expert slide preparation and reading can be difficult. 2 Indeed,
Author: Philip J. Rosenthal
Institution: University of California, San Francisco
Language: English
Topic: Malaria Research and Control
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1998503068