Rationalization of the Laboratory Diagnosis for Good Management of Malaria: Lessons from Transitional Methods

Table 1

Gender, age, and malaria test outcomes of the study population.

Gender and age of the study population
Gender/age	0–11 months	1–4 years	5–15 years	>15 years	Total
Male	183	244	108	332	867 (46.26%)
Female	151	194	74	588	1007 (53.74%)
Total	334 (17.82%)	438 (23.37%)	182 (9.71%)	920 (49.10%)	1874 (100%)
Results of blood smear malaria test of the study population
Age	Size	Positive malaria test	% of + malaria test
0–11 months	334	141	42.21%
1–4 years	438	204	46.57%
5–15 years	182	62	34.06%
Over 15 years	920	267	29.02%
Total	1874	674	35.96%
Predictive value of fever for malaria in the study population
Fever	Malaria positive	Malaria negative	Total
Present	390 (a)	607 (b)	997 (a  +  b)
Absent	284 (c)	593 (d)	877 (c + d)
Total	674 (a + c)	1200 b + d)	1874 (a+b + c + d)
Sensibility: a/(a+b) 390/997 = 0.39 (39%)
Specificity: d/(c + d) 593/877 = 0.57 (67.61%)
Positive predictive value (PPV): a/(a+c) = 390/674 = 0.57 (57.86%)
Negative predictive value (NPP): d/(b + d) = 593/1200 = 0.49 (49.41%)
Parasite densities of the study population
Parasite density/age	Above 15 years	5–14 years	1–4 years	0–11 months	Total
>10.000 parasites/µL	28	22	111	74	235
<10.000 parasites/µL	240	40	93	66	439

TP: a, FN: b, FP: c, TN: d.