Publication: Short communication: An assessment of the use of malaria rapid tests by village health volunteers in rural Laos
1
Issued Date
2004-03-01
Resource Type
ISSN
13602276
Other identifier(s)
2-s2.0-1642315253
Rights
Mahidol University
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Tropical Medicine and International Health. Vol.9, No.3 (2004), 325-329
Suggested Citation
Mayfong Mayxay, Paul N. Newton, Shunmay Yeung, Tiengkham Pongvongsa, Samlane Phompida, Rattanaxay Phetsouvanh, Nicholas J. White Short communication: An assessment of the use of malaria rapid tests by village health volunteers in rural Laos. Tropical Medicine and International Health. Vol.9, No.3 (2004), 325-329. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3156.2004.01199.x Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/21402
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Authors
Journal Issue
Thesis
Title
Short communication: An assessment of the use of malaria rapid tests by village health volunteers in rural Laos
Abstract
Rapid malaria diagnosis, a key component of malaria control strategies, is hampered by the expense and training requirements of reliable microscopy. Rapid malaria antigen tests may improve the diagnosis of malaria in the rural tropics. After 1 h training 64 village health volunteers (VHVs) from rural Laos, with no previous laboratory experience, performed two malaria rapid diagnostic tests (ParacheckPf™ and OptiMAL™) accurately. The reliability of six VHVs was assessed longitudinally, over 10 months with different frequencies of retraining. Compared with microscopy, error rates in dipstick interpretation were low (<2%) for both tests and were not associated with retraining frequency (P > 0.2). Previously untrained Lao VHVs performed malaria rapid tests reliably with high sensitivity and specificity after minimal training.