ArticleMalaria journal2019
Evaluation of malaria microscopy diagnostic performance at private health facilities in Tanzania.
Article in Malaria journal, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diagnostic performance of malaria microscopy among laboratory professionals in Ethiopia: a systematic review.Malaria journal · 2026Pooled it
- Malaria distribution and performance of malaria diagnostic methods in Malaysia (1980-2019): a systematic review.Malaria journal · 2020Pooled it
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- A dataset of blood slide images for AI-based diagnosis of malaria.Data in brief · 2025Article
- Assessing the role of the for-profit private healthcare sector in malaria elimination efforts in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study of challenges and opportunities.BMC public health · 2024Article
- A transfer learning approach to identify Plasmodium in microscopic images.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Evaluation of Malaria Microscopy Diagnostic Performance at 40 Public Health Facilities in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire in 2020.Acta parasitologica · 2024Article
- Laboratory evaluation of the miniature direct-on-blood PCR nucleic acid lateral flow immunoassay (mini-dbPCR-NALFIA), a simplified molecular diagnostic test for Plasmodium.Malaria journal · 2023Article
- Plasmodium falciparum infection prevalence among children aged 6-59 months from independent DHS and HIV surveys: Nigeria, 2018.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Difference between Microscopic and PCR Examination Result for Malaria Diagnosis and Treatment Evaluation in Sumba Barat Daya, Indonesia.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2022Article
- Malaria diagnostic methods with the elimination goal in view.Parasitology research · 2022Review
- Automated wide-field malaria parasite infection detection using Fourier ptychography on stain-free thin-smears.Biomedical optics express · 2022Article
- Advances and challenges in automated malaria diagnosis using digital microscopy imaging with artificial intelligence tools: A review.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Multi-Omics Advancements towardsDiagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Assessment of Malaria Microscopy Competency at Primary Health Institutions in the Chongqing Municipality.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Article
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2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe World Health Organization (WHO) recommends use of parasitological diagnosis of malaria for all age groups in all malaria transmission settings. Many private health facilities rely on malaria microscopy for malaria diagnosis. However, quality of malaria microscopy is affected by number of factors including availability of skilled laboratory microscopists and lack of quality assurance systems in many malaria endemic countries. This study was carried out to assess quality of malaria microscopy in selected private health facilities in Tanzania.
methodsA cross sectional study was conducted from August to September, 2017. A total of 40 private health laboratories in five regions were invited to participate in the study. Data were collected by distributing standardized pre-validated malaria slide-panels to each health facility. Sensitivity, specificity, and strength of agreement (with kappa score) were calculated to assess performance in detecting and quantification of Plasmodium species.
resultsAmong the 40 health facilities, 31 (77.5%) returned their results to the reference centre (Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences). Overall, the measures of malaria diagnostic accuracy were high, i.e. the sensitivity and specificity of malaria parasite detection by microscopy in the health facilities were 84.3% (95% CI 77-90) and 90.8% (95% CI 83.3-95.7), respectively. There was substantial agreement in parasite detection with (Kappa value: 0.74 (95% 0.65-0.83). However, only 17.8% (24 of 134) of blood slides were interpreted correctly at the health facilities in terms of parasite density counts.
conclusionAlthough there was substantial agreement between the private health microscopists and experienced microscopists in malaria parasite detection, there was poor performance in parasite counts. This calls for regular in-service training and external quality assessments at private health facilities to enhance the skills of private health facility microscopists in malaria microscopy.
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