Rapid malaria tests: Where do we go after 20 years?

Abstract

Great advances have been made in developing rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for diagnosing malaria. To date, RDTs present an exceedingly practical format for malaria diagnosis that outperforms traditional microscopy and more experimental next generation devices in the development pipeline. However, although use of such tests is accepted in principle, their actual use has lagged. Furthermore, study of how these tests perform, what their limitations are, and how to work with these limitations to still use them effectively has stagnated. We propose that the study and implementation of such RDTs should be aggressively advanced and propose a series of questions that can guide efforts. Copyright © 2009 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.