Makanjuola Rasheed O, Taylor-Robinson Andrew W
Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia, Lombardy, Italy.
Department of Microbiology, Edo University, Iyamho, Edo State, Nigeria.
Scientifica (Cairo). 2020 Feb 21;2020:3901409. doi: 10.1155/2020/3901409. eCollection 2020.
Clinical infection with malaria, caused by parasites of the genus , is considered a serious medical condition with the potential to become a life-threatening emergency. This is especially relevant to low-income countries in tropical and subtropical regions of the world where high rates of malaria-related morbidity and mortality are recorded. As a means to combat this major global public health threat, rapid and effective diagnosis remains the frontline action to initiate a timely and appropriate medical intervention. From all the approaches to parasite detection, rapid diagnostic tests, so-called RDTs, are the easiest to use and most cost-effective. However, some of the limitations inherent in this methodology could hinder effective patient treatment. A primary drawback is that the vast majority of commercially available RDTs detect only one of the five species of human malaria, . While this is the main cause of infection in many areas, it excludes the possibility of infection with another parasite (, and ) or of mixed infections containing different species. Hence, a diagnosis of non- malaria is missed. In turn, in resource-constrained settings where optimal microscopy is not available, a misdiagnosis of bacterial infection based on signs and symptoms alone often results in an inappropriate prescription of antibiotics. Here, we discuss how effective diagnosis of malaria and indiscriminate use of antibiotics in sub-Saharan Africa, a hot spot for transmission, may both be addressed by the development of innovative multiplexing RDTs that detect two or more species of .
由疟原虫属寄生虫引起的疟疾临床感染被视为一种严重的病症，有可能发展成为危及生命的紧急情况。这在世界热带和亚热带地区的低收入国家尤为重要，这些地区记录了与疟疾相关的高发病率和死亡率。作为应对这一重大全球公共卫生威胁的手段，快速有效的诊断仍然是启动及时和适当医疗干预的首要行动。在所有寄生虫检测方法中，快速诊断测试（即所谓的RDT）最易于使用且最具成本效益。然而，这种方法固有的一些局限性可能会阻碍对患者的有效治疗。一个主要缺点是，绝大多数商业可用的RDT仅能检测出五种人类疟原虫中的一种。虽然这是许多地区感染的主要原因，但它排除了感染其他寄生虫（间日疟原虫、卵形疟原虫和三日疟原虫）或包含不同物种的混合感染的可能性。因此，会漏诊非恶性疟原虫感染。反过来，在无法获得最佳显微镜检查的资源受限环境中，仅根据体征和症状对细菌感染进行误诊往往会导致不适当的抗生素处方。在此，我们讨论如何通过开发能够检测两种或更多种疟原虫的创新型多重RDT来解决撒哈拉以南非洲地区（疟原虫传播的热点地区）疟疾的有效诊断和抗生素的滥用问题。
