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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Malaria diagnosis, low-income, erythrocytes, diagnostic tests

College

Life Sciences

Department

Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Abstract

Malaria causes over 1 million deaths every year worldwide. Due to the difficulty in obtaining a precise diagnosis, combined with nonspecific symptoms in early stages (fever, aches, fatigue), many cases are misdiagnosed. Diagnosis methods are generally done through visual examination of peripheral blood smears or rapid diagnostic tests. Due to transient low levels of parasitemia in patients, these diagnostic methods often result in false negatives. By separating the parasitized erythrocytes from the others, the sensitivity of diagnostic tests improves. This was demonstrated by using a novel blood smear technique that introduces centrifugation and isolation into the conventional smear or by using gravitational sedimentation and isolation of whole blood in a capillary tube prior to microscopic analysis. Both of these methods yielded substantial increases in test sensitivity and reduction of false negatives, making diagnosis both easier and more accurate without significantly raising costs to the patient or clinic.

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Microbiology Commons

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