Carestart malaria hrp2 pldh pf pan combo

For microscopy, a 10% Giemsa solution was used to stain both thick and thin blood films, in accordance with hospital procedures. The RDT First Response Malaria Ag pLDH/HRP2 Combo Card Test (Premier Medical Corporation Ltd., India) was used until 20.08.2016. At this time, for the remaining 6 weeks, it was replaced by CareStartTM Malaria HRP2/pLDH (Pf/PAN) Combo (Access Bio, Inc., Somerset, NJ, USA) due to stock-out. 96% (685/714) of the patients were tested with the first RDT.

Clinical evaluation by the Prescriber in the team included the measurement of axillary temperature using a digital thermometer (Omron digital, Omron Healthcare Inc., Hoofddorp, the Netherlands). All children were tested for the presence of malaria parasites using the CareStart^TM Malaria HRP2/pLDH (pf/PAN) Combo (AccessBio, New Jersey, USA) rapid diagnostic test (mRDT). Children with a history of fever during the 48 h period preceding the day of survey or with an axillary temperature ≥ 37.5 °C at the time of examination and a positive mRDT result were considered as having malaria and treated with artesunate-amodiaquine (AS-AQ) combination as per national treatment guidelines [18 ]. Children with fever but a negative mRDT result were given an antipyretic and referred to the nearest health centre. Severely ill children were sent to the Baptist Medical Centre, the primary referral hospital in that part of the northern region, for further management at the expense of the project.

A commercially available RDT kit (CareStart™ Malaria HRP2/pLDH [Pf/PAN] Combo, ACCESSBIO, INC., New Jersey, USA) was used to detect malaria parasites, according to the manufacturer’s instructions, using 5 μl of capillary blood. The membrane strips were read and interpreted after 20 min, as described elsewhere [30 (link)].