In this article we will discuss the different malaria diagnostic test and how the knowledge of these different Laboratory test for malaria can help you in the fight against malaria disease.
What is a malaria test?
Plasmodium parasites causes a serious disease called malaria. Small animals or plants that feed on other creatures are referred to parasites. Infected mosquito bites passes the parasite to humans which can be detected through several malaria diagnostic tests. Initially, the symptoms of flu are similar to malaria symptoms. Malaria can cause life-threatening conditions later on. Malaria can be passed from person to person by mosquitoes though it not as contagious as the common flu or cold.
A mosquito transmits the parasite to anyone it bites after biting an infected person. The malaria parasites enter your bloodstream when you are bitten by an infected mosquito. The malaria parasites will cause malarial disease when it multiplies in red blood cells. Signs of malaria infection in the blood is seen with a malaria test. Malaria is widespread subtropical regions and in the tropics.
Hundreds of thousands die from the disease and millions of people are infected with malaria each year. African children die the most from malaria. Although malaria occurs in over 87 countries, Africa has a vast majority of deaths and infections. US citizens who travel to tropical countries in Africa are at risk of contracting malaria even though it is rare in the United States.
To treat patients in time and prevent local mosquitoes from further spreading the infection in the community, malaria needs to be detected in time. Malaria should be and should be treated accordingly as it is a potential medical emergency the leading cause of death among malaria patients in Africa is delay in treatment and diagnosis is. Based on the patient's physical examination findings, symptoms, and travel history, malaria can be suspected.
However at bigmanlab, laboratory tests must identify the malaria components or parasite for a definitive diagnosis. Rapid diagnosis of malaria is recommended by WHO, either by rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) or microscopy, before receiving treatment for all patients suspected of having malaria. Accurate and early diagnosis is essential for effective management of malaria and for close malaria surveillance and other febrile illnesses.
How is malaria diagnosed?
Your healthcare provider at bigmanlab will perform a physical exam after asking you questions about your health. The health care provider will use a blood smear to test for the disease if he/she suspects you have malaria. Your blood sample will be placed on a glass slide, after it’s prepared, and viewed under a microscope during this test.
Malaria diagnosis can be done with a blood smears. It can also help your physician see how many parasites are in your blood and what type of malaria parasite you have. This is very essential in making treatment decisions. Your care provider may order more tests every 12 to 24 hours if the first blood smear does not show malaria.
There are also blood tests available that can quickly diagnose malaria. The results of rapid test are usually confirmed with a blood smear if they point to malaria. Your care provider may test you for malaria if you have a fever up to a year after your return and have been in an area with malaria.
You may need more tests to make sure you don't have malaria if the tests don't show malaria. Tests are repeated during treatment to see if the treatment is working and equally to follow the course of the infection.
Some methods of malaria diagnosis include the following:
Antigen detection:
To detect antigens derived from the malaria parasite at bigmanlab, there are many test kits available. Usually a cassette or dipstick format consist the immunochromatographic tests also known as "immunochromatography" and give results in 2 to 15 minutes. In situations where a reliable microscopic diagnosis is not present, the rapid diagnostic test (RDT) offers a useful alternative to microscopy.
Variety of clinical programs and settings currently used RDTs for malaria diagnosis. Based on a panel of parasites drawn from a global network of collection sites, WHO benchmarked the performance of many commercially available RDTs around the world.
Serology:
At bigmanlab, we use serology to detect antibodies against malaria parasites by indirect immunofluorescence (IFA) or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Serology does not detect current infection, but measures past exposure.
Microscopic diagnosis:
For laboratory confirmation of malaria, microscopic examination remains the "gold standard" for us at bigmanlab. If ordered by a healthcare professional the test should be done right away. Microscopic examination shouldn’t be stacked for convenience or stored for execution by more qualified personnel or.
Additionally, microscopic tests shouldn’t be sent to a reference laboratory as the results may take longer times to be available. In order to properly treat malaria-infected patients, it is very important that health professionals receive the results of microscopic malaria tests within hours.
Technique:
The patient’s bllod sample is applied as a thin or thick smear, stained with Romanovsky stain (usually Giemsa) and examined with an oil immersion 100x objective. Visual criteria are used to differentiate between different species after identifying the malaria parasites. When Giemsa stain is not available, you can use Wright's stain, commonly used in clinical laboratories to examine blood. However, it can be more difficult to identify parasite species.
Pros:
A relatively simple and established technique that is familiar to most laboratory workers is microscopy. Making a thin or thick malaria blood smear can be done by any laboratory equipped and capable of routine hematology testing. Microscopic tests can provide valuable information within hours of blood collection. The presence in the patient's blood of malaria pathogen can determine using microscopy.
Laboratory technicians can examine the thin malaria blood smear to determine the percentage of the patient's red blood cells infected with the parasite or the type of malaria, once a diagnosis has been made, usually by finding the parasites on a thick blood smear. Thin and thick blood smear can show clinicians with these three important information which is used to guide initial treatment decisions.
Clinical Diagnosis:
The clinical diagnosis at bigmanlab is based physical examination findings and on the patient's symptoms. The first symptoms of malaria (usually vomiting, chills, nausea, body aches, sweating, headache and fever) are also seen in other illnesses (such as common viral infections and influenza) and are often nonspecific. Similarly, physical findings are often nonspecific (fatigue, sweating, elevated temperature).
Clinical findings are more prominent severe malaria (respiratory distress, coma, confusion, severe anemia, focal neurologic symptoms) mainly caused by falciparum, and may increase the malaria suspicion index. Laboratory tests for malaria should always be used to confirm clinical findings. Healthcare professionals should perform an initial screening exam and order a routine chemistry panel and a complete blood count in addition to ordering the specific malaria diagnostic tests.
These additional tests are useful in determining whether the patient has uncomplicated or severe manifestations of malaria infection If the person tests positive for malaria. In particular, this test can detect acid-base abnormalities, severe anemia, hyperbilirubinemia, renal failure, and hypoglycemia.
Molecular diagnosis:
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used to detect parasite nucleic acid. This technique has limited utility for diagnosing acutely ill patients in the standard care setting, even though may be more sensitive than streak microscopy. For use in the diagnosis of malaria infection, the PCR results are often not available fast enough. At bigmanlab, once the diagnosis has been made by blood smear microscopy or RDT PCR is very useful in confirming the type of malaria parasite.
Drug resistance tests:
To assess the susceptibility of parasites collected from certain patients to antimalarial drugs, a drug resistance tests should be performed in specialized laboratories like bigmanlab. There are two major laboratory procedures available:
In vitro tests:
In the presence of increasing drug concentrations, the parasites are cultured; the concentration of drug that inhibited the growth of the parasite is then used in the end.
Molecular characterization:
Molecular markers determined by gene sequencing or PCR also allow, to a certain extent, to predict some drugs resistance situations. All cases of malaria diagnosed in the USA is to be tested for signs of resistance to drug as recommended by the CDC.
