Abstrakt
The effectiveness of microscopy: Rapid diagnostic test and molecular assay in diagnosing malaria.
Obimakinde ET*, Simon-Oke IA, Osunyemi OS
This study was carried out to determine the effectiveness of microscopy, Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) and molecular Technique in diagnosing malaria infection in patients at the Federal University of Technology Health Centre, Akure. A total of One hundred and forty (140) patients with malaria symptoms between December 2015 and February 2016 were involved in the study. Prior to the commencement of the research work, approval was given by the Health Research Ethics Committee (HREC) of the University. Blood samples were collected from patients having malaria symptoms and transferred into ethylendiamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) container to prevent coagulation of the blood. Malaria screening was done using microscopy method, Rapid Diagnostic Test and molecular assay. The microscopy method used was thick and thin blood film microscopy technique stained with Giemsa stain. Malaria Plasmodium falciparum antigen detection kit was used for Rapid Diagnostic Test while molecular Assay was carried out using nested PCR approach with suitable primers. Chi-square analysis was used to analyze the data obtained from the study. It was observed that P. falciparum was the only species of Plasmodium found in the study area. Result of the study revealed that prevalence of malaria obtained from the samples analyzed using microscopy, Rapid Diagnostic Test and molecular assay ranges from 65% to 73.57%. The molecular assay revealed the highest prevalence of (103)73.57% followed by microscopy analysis (100)71.43% and Rapid Diagnostic Test (91) 65% with no significant difference at P =0.265. It was observed that of the three techniques, Molecular assay and Microscopy were most sensitive for malaria diagnosis. However, molecular assay is expensive, takes time and requires a very standard laboratory with well trained personnel. Therefore, the use of microscopy technique for malaria screening is recommended from this study due to its high sensitivity, cheap cost and low technicality compared to the use of molecular analysise.