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Case Management Diagnosis of Malaria, Overview

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Malaria

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Synonyms

Diagnosis of clinical malaria; Malaria diagnosis

Definition

Case management diagnosis of malaria refers to the demonstration of malaria parasites as a probable cause of clinical illness. As malaria symptoms and signs are not pathognomonic and malaria infection may be asymptomatic, this therefore implies the demonstration of parasitemia, or of markers reliably associated with parasitemia, in a symptomatic individual.

Introduction

With the development of the light microscope to its highest potential resolution in the mid-to-late 1800s, the medical community had a first laboratory method for malaria diagnosis. This diagnostic allowed people to reliably distinguish malaria from other causes of nonspecific fever for the first time and begin to map disease distribution and understand transmission. As effective treatment became widely available towards the mid-twentieth century, detection and effective case management became possible. However, partly due to the difficulty in...

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Abbreviations

LAMP:

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification

LFA:

Lateral flow assay

NAAT:

Nucleic acid amplification test

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

RDT:

(Antigen-detecting) rapid diagnostic test (lateral flow device)

WHO:

World Health Organization

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Good Fund / Intellectual Ventures, Bellevue, Washington, USA

    David Bell

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Odonto-Stomatology, University Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Dakar, Senegal

    Oumar Gaye

  3. PATH, Seattle, WA, USA

    Richard W. Steketee

Authors
  1. David Bell
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  2. Oumar Gaye
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  3. Richard W. Steketee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Bell .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Heswall, United Kingdom

    Marcel Hommel

  2. Institut für Tropenmedizin, Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Peter G. Kremsner

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Bell, D., Gaye, O., Steketee, R.W. (2013). Case Management Diagnosis of Malaria, Overview. In: Hommel, M., Kremsner, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of Malaria. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8757-9_122-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8757-9_122-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-8757-9

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