ReviewClinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases2011
Malaria rapid diagnostic tests in elimination settings--can they find the last parasite?
Review in Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 125 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
125 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Parasitaemia and fever in uncomplicated Plasmodium vivax malaria: A systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Pooled it
- The application of spectroscopy techniques for diagnosis of malaria parasites and arboviruses and surveillance of mosquito vectors: A systematic review and critical appraisal of evidence.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Severity and mortality of severe Plasmodium ovale infection: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2020Pooled it
- Evaluation of CareStart™ malaria HRP2/pLDH (Pf/PAN) combo rapid diagnostic test for diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum infection in malaria co-endemic areas in association with parasite density.Malaria journal · 2025Trial
- Assessing the acceptability and feasibility of reactive drug administration for malaria elimination in a Plasmodium vivax predominant setting: a qualitative study in two provinces in Thailand.BMC public health · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Diagnostic performance of rapid diagnostic test, light microscopy and polymerase chain reaction during mass survey conducted in low and high malaria-endemic areas from two North-Eastern states of India.Parasitology research · 2021Trial
- Moving from Malaria Burden Reduction toward Elimination: An Evaluation of Mass Drug Administration in Southern Province, Zambia.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2020Trial
- Impact of Intermittent Mass Testing and Treatment on Incidence of Malaria Infection in a High Transmission Area of Western Kenya.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2020Trial
- The XN-30 hematology analyzer for rapid sensitive detection of malaria: a diagnostic accuracy study.BMC medicine · 2019Trial
- Short-term Impact of Mass Drug Administration With Dihydroartemisinin Plus Piperaquine on Malaria in Southern Province Zambia: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2016Trial
- Appropriate targeting of artemisinin-based combination therapy by community health workers using malaria rapid diagnostic tests: findings from randomized trials in two contrasting areas of high and low malaria transmission in south-western Uganda.Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH · 2016Trial
- Trial
- Aptamer-Based Biosensors for the Detection of Malaria.Biosensors · 2026Review
- Quality assurance in rapid diagnostic tests for accurate diagnosis of malaria.The Indian journal of medical research · 2026Review
- Individual and population level uncertainty interact to determine the performance of outbreak surveillance systems.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Field and laboratory evaluation of Abbott-Bioline™ Malaria Ag Pf/Pv RDT performance in a high-transmission setting: contrasting results with a low-endemic area.Malaria journal · 2026Article
- Associations between precipitation, temperature, and malaria prevalence in children under 5 in Mali.PloS one · 2026Article
- Patterns of patent and sub-patent Plasmodium falciparum infections in household members of children under seasonal malaria chemoprevention coverage in the health district of Nanoro, Burkina Faso.Malaria journal · 2025Article
65 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for malaria have improved the availability of parasite-based diagnosis throughout the malaria-endemic world. Accurate malaria diagnosis is essential for malaria case management, surveillance, and elimination. RDTs are inexpensive, simple to perform, and provide results in 15-20 min. Despite high sensitivity and specificity for Plasmodium falciparum infections, RDTs have several limitations that may reduce their utility in low-transmission settings: they do not reliably detect low-density parasitaemia (≤200 parasites/μL), many are less sensitive for Plasmodium vivax infections, and their ability to detect Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae is unknown. Therefore, in elimination settings, alternative tools with higher sensitivity for low-density infections (e.g. nucleic acid-based tests) are required to complement field diagnostics, and new highly sensitive and specific field-appropriate tests must be developed to ensure accurate diagnosis of symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers. As malaria transmission declines, the proportion of low-density infections among symptomatic and asymptomatic persons is likely to increase, which may limit the utility of RDTs. Monitoring malaria in elimination settings will probably depend on the use of more than one diagnostic tool in clinical-care and surveillance activities, and the combination of tools utilized will need to be informed by regular monitoring of test performance through effective quality assurance.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.