BACKGROUND

Laboratory diagnosis of malaria is limited in peripheral health care services and mainly depends on non-specific clinical examination until the advent of Rapid Diagnostic Tests.

OBJECTIVE

Evaluation of the effectiveness of Paracheck pf and Parascreen pan/pf tests for the diagnosis of malaria.

METHOD

A Health Center based cross-sectional study was conducted in Kella and Bussa Health Centers, Wondo-Genet area, South Ethiopia where malaria is endemic. Microscopy of Giemsa stained thick blood film was used as gold standard.

RESULT

The sensitivity and specificity of Paracheck Pf test for the diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum were 96.7% and 76%, respectively, with positive predictive value of 67.1% and negative predictive value of 97.9%. The sensitivity and specificity of the Parascreen Pan/pf test for the diagnosis of P. falciparum were 100% and 65.1%, respectively, while its positive and negative predictive values were 67.9 and 100% respectively. Its sensitivity and specificity for Plasmodium vivax were 100 and 42.3%, respectively, with a positive predictive value of 33.3% and a negative predictive value of 100%.

CONCLUSION

Although further study is needed to evaluate their specificities, both tests were found to be effective for the diagnosis of falciparum malaria at peripheral health care unit where skilled personnel and laboratory facilities are not available for blood film examination.