Ofosu Ntiamoah David*, Asamoah Akwasi, Tuekpe Mawuli Ransford, Ankoma Rachel, Amaniampong Nana Boahemaa and Yeboah Freda
Background: Malaria is considered one of the highest killer diseases caused by a protozoan parasite of a severity of genus Plasmodium. The symptoms of malaria appear similarly with symptoms of other diseases and have posed a huge problem in terms of accurate and rapt diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to compare the sensitivity and specificity values of two diagnostic tools; malaria microscopy and rapid diagnostic test kits (using three different RDTs) in the diagnosis of malaria.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on patients at the Holy Family Hospital at Berekum in the Bono East Region of Ghana. One hundred and fifty-five (155) participants were recruited. Their blood samples were taken. The participants were tested for malaria using the Histidine Rich Protein-2 (HRP-2) antigen based RDTs (Carestart, SD-Bioline and First Response) and malaria microscopy was also performed for all participants.
Results: All three RDTs had a 100% sensitivity value and a 98.5% specificity value. The reported positive predictive value and negative predictive values were 92.5% and 100% respectively for all RDTs. All three RDTs had a 95.4% agreement with microscopy.
Conclusion: The studies showed that malaria RDTs used in the region and microscopies were comparable in the diagnosis of malaria.
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Malaria Control & Elimination received 1187 citations as per Google Scholar report
