Osamuyimen Igbinosa, Owen Igbinosa Osasere Asowata, Chenyi Jeffery
Malaria is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, rapid and accurate diagnosis is fundamental to effective management and control of malaria. New technologies have immerged to circumvent limitations of the traditional diagnostic method. This review focuses on the quality issues with current malaria diagnostics that have been developed over time. Databases including MEDLINE, PubMed and Google beta were searched for literature pertaining to malaria diagnostics published between January 1970 and March 2009. The references of the retrieved articles were hand-searched for relevant studies. Reduction of malaria morbidity and drug resistance intensity, along with its associated economic losses require urgent upgrade of the quality of parasite-based diagnostic methods. An investment in anti-malarial drug development or malaria vaccine development should be accompanied by a parallel commitment to improve diagnostic tools and their availability to people living in resource-poor malaria endemic areas.
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