Rapid Diagnostic Test Brings The Best Malaria Drugs To The Right Patients - 3 December 2010

ATLANTA - Rapid diagnostic tests for malaria promise to distinguish accurately - and at low cost - patients with fever caused by malaria so that the only patients to receive antimalarial treatment are the ones who truly have the disease. That's according to the findings of a symposium held to discuss the use of rapid diagnostic tests and artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual meeting held in Atlanta. Two Principal Investigators and the Director of the ACT Consortium - coordinated from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine - were among those taking part: Dr Hugh Reyburn who works in Tanzania, Dr Toby Leslie based in Afghanistan, and the Professor David Schellenberg from London who chaired the discussions. They discuss their findings about the current perceptions and actual use of malaria diagnostics and ACTs in countries where the disease is endemic.