ICT - A rapid, innovative but simple technique for malaria diagnosis

Abstract

Early, proper and accurate diagnosis plays an important role in case of malaria. Usually malarial diagnosis is done using clinical criteria and/or microscopy. Immunochromatographic tests (ICTs) are now a days widely available and recognized as an alternative method for diagnosis of the malaria. In this study we performed microscopy i. e. Field’s stain and ICT with the help of ParaHIT Total for 897 samples, collected from various clinical laboratories of Valsad district, Gujarat, India. Among them with microscopy 203 but with ICT 198 samples were found malaria positive. In case of microscopy Plasmodium vivax (137), P. falciparum (65) and in (01) case mix infection was found where as by ICT 65 samples were recognized as P. falciparum, and 133 found positive as P. vivax.  Results of ICT were immediately informed to physicians/patients for faster treatment. Unlike microscopy it is very easy to perform even a layman-nontechnical person can perform it. Even the specificity and sensitivity of dipstick test was found high. Simplicity, easiness and quick results were three important characteristics of ICT which will make it method of choice even in areas where adequate healthcare facilities are not properly available.