Utility of a point-of-care malaria rapid diagnostic test for excluding malaria as the cause of fever among HIV-positive adults in rural Rakai, Uganda

Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2010 Jan;82(1):145-7. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.2010.09-0408.

Abstract

We compared results of a malaria rapid diagnostic test (Binax Now Malaria, Binax-M, Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc., Waltham, MA) performed at rural mobile clinics in Uganda by clinicians evaluating febrile adult HIV patients to thick smear evaluated at a central laboratory by trained microscopists. Two hundred forty-six samples were analyzed, including 14 (5.7%) which were thick-smear positive for falciparum malaria. Sensitivity of Binax-M compared with thick smear was 85.7% (95% CI: 57.2-98.2), specificity 97.8% (95% CI: 94.9-99.3), positive and negative predictive values were 70.6% (95% CI: 44.0-89.7) and 99.1% (95% CI: 96.8-99.9), respectively. The rapid diagnostic test accurately ruled malaria "in or out" at the point-of-care, facilitating appropriate clinical management and averting unnecessary anti-malarial therapy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Female
  • Fever / etiology*
  • HIV Infections / complications*
  • Humans
  • Malaria / complications
  • Malaria / diagnosis*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Point-of-Care Systems*
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Rural Population*
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Uganda