Improving Accuracy of Malaria Diagnosis in Underserved Rural and Remote Endemic Areas of Sub-Saharan Africa: A Call to Develop Multiplexing Rapid Diagnostic Tests

Table 1

Advantages and disadvantages of various malaria diagnostic tests.

Malaria diagnostic test	Advantages	Disadvantages
1. Microscopy-based	(i) Very accurate and specific	(i) Requires highly trained personnel
	(ii) Provides both qualitative (Plasmodium species) and quantitative (parasite density) data	(ii) Requires reliable electricity supply
	(iii) Reveals the stage of malaria infection	(iii) Low sensitivity
2. Molecular-based	(i) Highly sensitive and specific	(i) Requires highly trained personnel
	(ii) Distinguishes between different Plasmodium species	(ii) Very expensive equipment
		(iii) Time-consuming
3. Immunology-based	(i) Provides information on malaria epidemiological surveillance	(i) Cannot differentiate between past and present infections
4. Rapid diagnostic test (RDT)	(i) Provides results very quickly	(i) Unable to quantify parasite density
	(ii) Inexpensive	(ii) Cannot differentiate between past and present infections
	(iii) Very easy to use with little training	(iii) Mutation in the gene encoding the antigen can affect the result