A field trial of the ParaSight-F test for the diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum infection.

The rapid manual ParaSight-F test for Plasmodium falciparum is an antigen capture test detecting trophozoite-derived histidine rich protein II, is simple and provides a definitive diagnosis within 10 min. Compared with 913 thick blood film examinations, the ParaSight-F test had 93.4% sensitivity and 98.2% specificity. Compared with 520 blood samples within the same study examined with the aid of the polymerase chain reaction, the ParaSight-F test had 91.6% sensitivity and 99.4% specificity. The ParaSight-F test could be a valuable diagnostic tool for falciparum malaria in any situation requiring rapid diagnosis in the absence of microscopical examination.