TITLE:
Evaluation of Three Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits in the Diagnosis of Plasmodium Species Infections among Primary School Children in Baringo County, Kenya
AUTHORS:
Collince Jared Omondi, Lucy Muthony Kamau, Humphrey Kariuki Njaanake, Douglas Anyona, Daniel Onguru, Benson Estambale
KEYWORDS:
Rapid Diagnostic Tests, Microscopy, Malaria, Sensitivity, Specificity, Baringo
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Clinical Diagnostics,
Vol.7 No.1,
March
28,
2017
ABSTRACT: Background: Due to the difficulty in implementing
microscopy-based definitive diagnosis of malaria especially in resource-poor
areas, rapid diagnostic test (RDT) kits as alternatives have been developed by
different companies. Kits from different companies may differ in sensitivity
and specificity. It is therefore imperative to conduct field evaluation of kits
from different manufacturers before they are recommended for widespread use in
diagnosis of malaria. The present study sought to evaluate the performance of
malaria RDT kits from two manufacturers against microscopy in detection of Plasmodium spp. infections among primary
school children in Baringo County, Kenya. Methods: Two cross-sectional
comparative surveys to assess three RDT kits (CareStart HRP-2, SD Bioline Ag-Pf
and SD Bioline Ag-Pf/Pan) were conducted on 561 pupils from three primary
schools within the Kerio Valley of Baringo County, Kenya. Results: A
total of 561 blood samples were tested for Plasmodium spp. within a period of four months. SD Bioline Ag-Pf/ Pan RDT kit had a higher
sensitivity (90%) compared to that of CareStart HRP-2 (70%) but this was not
statistically significant (McNemar’s χ2 = 0.5, df = 1, p = 0.4795). The
sensitivity of SD Bioline Ag-Pf was the same as that of Care Start HRP-2
(82.4%). The number of positive samples by microscopy was relatively lower than
those detected by RDT kits. Two cases of non-P. falciparum infections were detected by RDT kits during the
second survey. Conclusion: The results of the present study suggest that
the performance of the three kits in the diagnosis of P. falciparum infections was better than microscopy. The
sensitivity of SD Bioline Ag-Pf/Pan was slightly greater than that of Care Start
HRP-2, although not statistically different.