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The objective was to determine the prevalence of household food insecurity (FI) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondary analysis was performed using the waves 1 to 3 of the 2020 COVID-19 High Frequency Phone Surveys in 13 LAC countries. The countries with the highest FI in the first wave were Honduras (60.3%), Peru (58.1%) and Ecuador (57.9%). Likewise, the countries with the greatest differences in the prevalence of FI between the first and last waves in percentage points (PP) were Peru (-29), Guatemala (-27.7) and Bolivia (-21.8). LAC countries face a great burden of FI.Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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Intro: Antimicrobial resistance has been considered a global health problem, being one of the 10 most important public health problems worldwide. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of antibiotics were used without any control, both on an outpatient basis and in hospitalization, which can have serious consequences. Method(s): Prior informed consent, a cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with a sample of 322 physicians. A survey was carried out in Google forms, and it was shared by telephone messages and social networks. Finding(s): 322 physicians, 60.9% women and 39.1% men, mean age 33.4 years, 85.9% general practitioners, 11.5% specialist physicians. 47.2% work in private institutions, 36% in public centers. Antibiotic policies in institutions: 50.3% do not have regulations for the use of antibiotics in COVID-19, only 29.5% work with policies to control the use of antibiotics and control measures against antibiotic resistance, 73.9% lack a committee for infection control and prevention of antibiotic resistance. Use of antibiotics: only 20.8% never used antibiotics in COVID-19, 45.6% used antibiotics in severe COVID-19, 40.4% hospitalized patients, and 33.5% outpatients. The most used antibiotics were azithromycin (67.1%), levofloxacin (53.4%), ceftriaxone (53.4%), and amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid (34.8%). 43.2% consider that using antibiotics can reduce mortality in moderate and severe COVID-19, 50.3% believe antibiotics should be suspended if there is clinical improvement, 96.3% believe there is an increase in self-medication of antibiotics, 59.8% consider that they used antibiotics inconrrectly at some point, 58.1% consider antibiotic resistance to be a problem in their workplace. 86.3% currently make less use of antibiotics in patients with COVID-19. Conclusion(s): In Honduras, there are deficiencies in policies for the use of antibiotics and control of antimicrobial resistance. Most doctors consider that they have used antibiotics incorrectly, including antibiotics that can generate resistance.Copyright © 2023
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Opposition parties in competitive authoritarian regimes rarely win elections by a landslide, especially where poverty, repressive security forces, and clientelism abound. Yet in November 2021, Honduras's opposition defeated the incumbent National Party against the odds. This essay argues that the opposition succeeded by "playing the long game": 1) building a mass-party organization, 2) continually participating in elections, and 3) forging unity through power-sharing. Paradoxically, the Honduran opposition's lack of international support incentivized these choices and became a blessing in disguise. Whether Xiomara Castro will rebuild democracy remains uncertain, but her coalition's route to power yields lessons for oppositions elsewhere.
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To compare the clinical outcomes of a low dose dexamethasone strategy vs. a high-dose dexamethasone strategy in hypoxemic COVID-19 patients. A retrospective observational study comparing low-dose (8 mg) and high-dose dexamethasone (24 mg) of COVID-19 patients admitted from September 1, 2020 to October 31, 2020 in a hospital in Honduras. We included 81 patients with confirmed COVID-19 who required oxygen therapy. The mean age was similar between groups (57.49 vs. 56.95 years). There were more male patients in the group of 24 mg ( p = 0.01). Besides, patients on the 24 mg dose had more prevalence of hypertension ( p = 0.052). More patients in the 24 mg group had a higher rate of invasive mechanical ventilation (15.00% vs. 2.56%, p = 0.058). When evaluating the association between the high dose group and outcomes, we find no significant association with mortality, nosocomial infections, high flow mask, invasive mechanical ventilation, or the need for vasopressors. We find no significant differences in the Kaplan-Meier analysis regarding the survival (log-rank p -value = 0.315). We did not find significant differences between the use of 24 mg and 8 mg of dexamethasone in hypoxemic COVID-19 patients.
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Conspiracy theories widely influence our social and political lives. A recent example is the broad impact such theories had on government's efforts to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In that context, public's compliance and willingness to get vaccinated was found to be substantially and negatively affected by the belief in conspiracy theories, among various factors. In the present study, we tested whether some countries are more susceptible to conspiracy theories than others. We examined, for the first time, the idea that the degree of intensity of conflict predicts the degree of belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories. A multilevel analysis across 66 countries (N = 46,450) demonstrated that people living in countries with higher conflict intensity tended to be more susceptible to COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs. These findings are the first large-scale comparative evidence of the profound psychological effects of conflicts on the involved societies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) Impact Statement The belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories has severe implications on public's health. Thus, it is important to better understand the reasons behind such beliefs. The present study provides new information which helps to better understand the contexts in which conspiracy belief thrive. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
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Small-scale fishing communities are often particularly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks, as exemplified by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, extreme weather events as a result of climate change, and rising costs associated with the war in Ukraine. These positive impacts were experienced in vulnerable communities facing several external stressors, thus highlighting the benefits of strengthening community governance and supporting improved and diversified livelihoods to increase resilience to threats. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Oryx is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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The Covid pandemic caused changes in education of which we may never know or understand all its repercussions to the public education system. One group of vulnerable students, newcomers from Guatemala and Honduras with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE), were negatively affected. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one SLIFE program sent its students home in the spring of 2020 to quarantine and did not return to in-person learning again until a year later. The purpose of this quantitative, causal comparative study is to investigate the effects of remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic on SLIFE students' education while attending an urban school's SLIFE program for adolescents in southwest Ohio. The research was a longitudinal design using dependent or paired-samples t tests, comparing SLIFE students' English and mathematics end of semester grades during face-to-face learning in the first semester of the 2019-2020 school year versus the same SLIFE students' English and mathematics end of semester grades during remote learning in the first semester of the 2020-2021 school year. A statistically significant difference was found between school years, confirming a decline in SLIFE student achievement while learning remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions and recommendations for future research and practices are included. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
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Proper territorial data management is critical for territorial planning projects, research, innovation, and the appropriate follow-up to act for the well-being of populations. A multidisciplinary team of professionals established a pilot project named Cortes Data Hub (Centro de Datos de Cortés). It presents several dashboards that show official statistics on the energy sector, mapping the region's energy demand, data on COVID-19 cases and vaccination rates by municipality or department, and a project using Google Earth that combines post-Eta and Iota observations and a social media campaign for disaster awareness and for the promotion of activities to develop tourism in the San Manuel Municipality. This pilot project shows the importance to observe and monitor various key environmental, health, and socioeconomic data. This will help improve initiatives for local development, disaster prevention and control, and the promotion of the One Health approach. The challenges to overcome are the quality and timing of data. Training more academics, government teams, and decision-makers in the use of new tools for data integration with earth observations are important for the Cortés department's development. © 2022 IEEE.
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COVID-19 and its restrictions have had widely documented negative impacts for private and social rental sectors, internationally. Limited evidence exists about how the pandemic effects were experienced in alternative forms of renting such as housing cooperatives. Rental cooperatives, recognised for their principles of democratic control, education and training and concern for community, may offer different outcomes for members than more individually-oriented rental forms. This paper seeks to explore whether and how COVID-19 was responded to within cooperative rental housing models, and if the pandemic posed a challenge to cooperative principles. Using a social practices approach, the analysis first identifies cooperative members' formal and informal responses to COVID-19, and second explores the meaning of such activities in the pandemic context in Australia and Honduras cooperatives. The continuity of usual housing cooperative practices and pandemic measures were analysed via in-depth interviews with 15 residents. Findings indicate that cooperative responses acted to reduce negative impacts of the pandemic or to find effective solutions. Rental housing cooperative residents' lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, invite us to reflect on the role of housing cooperatives in the housing sector, the importance of collaborative housing models and the relevance of housing-based community resilience.
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted millions of lives globally. While COVID-19 did not discriminate against developed or developing nations, it has been a significant challenge for third world countries like Honduras to have widespread availability of advanced therapies. The concept of early treatment was almost unheard of when early outpatient treatments utilizing repurposed drugs in Latin American countries began showing promising results. One such drug is fluvoxamine, which has shown tremendous potential in two major studies. As a direct result, fluvoxamine was added to the standard of care in a major medical center outpatient COVID-19 clinic. Methods: This is a prospective observational study performed at the Hospital Centro Médico Sampedrano (CEMESA) in San Pedro Sula, Cortes, Honduras in the COVID-19 outpatient clinic. All patients were at least 15 years of age who had presented with mild or moderate signs and symptoms of COVID-19, and who also had a documented positive SARS-CoV-2 antigen or Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) were included in the study. These patients then were all prescribed fluvoxamine. The cohort of patients who decided to take fluvoxamine were compared for primary endpoints of mortality and hospitalization risk to the cohort who did not take fluvoxamine. Patients were then monitored for 30 days with the first follow up at 7 days and the second follow up at 10-14 days of symptom onset. Categorical variables were compared by Pearson Chi-square test. The Relative risk was calculated using regression models. Continuous variables were compared by t-test and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. Results: Out of total 657 COVID-19 cases, 594 patients took fluvoxamine and 63 did not take fluvoxamine. A total of five patients (0.76 percent) died, with only one death occurring in the fluvoxamine group. Patients who received fluvoxamine had a significantly lower relative risk of mortality (RR 0.06, p 0.011, 95% CI 0.007-0.516). There was a lower relative risk of hospitalization in the patients who in the fluvoxamine group. (-10 vs. 30 hospitalizations, RR 0.49, p = 0.035, 95% CI 0.26-0.95). There was 73 percent reduction in relative risk of requiring oxygen in the fluvoxamine group (RR 0.27, p < 0.001, 95% CI 0.14-0.54 Mean lymphocytes count on the first follow-up visit was significantly higher in the fluvoxamine group (1.72 vs. 1.38, Δ 0.33, p 0.007, CI 0.09-0.58). Conclusion: The results of our study suggest that fluvoxamine lowers the relative risk of death, hospitalization, and oxygen requirement in COVID 19 patients.
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For decades, governments have sought to deter migration by investing in the development of migrant-sending communities, despite macroeconomic data that shows that development can increase emigration. However, emerging research suggests that well-designed aid can promote rootedness in home communities. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has increasingly attempted to use development to deter migration from the Northern Triangle states of Central America. Is this policy sound?This paper argues that development should not be instrumentalized to discourage people from migrating. It examines migration and development policies from the lens of Catholic social teaching, which recognizes the need for states to respect the agency of individuals. This is particularly important when it comes to complex and consequential decisions like whether to migrate. The Catholic Church recognizes both a right to migrate, when necessary, and the responsibility of states, particularly wealthy nations, to help people realize the right not to migrate;that is, to thrive in their home communities. The paper argues for US government assistance to alleviate poverty and invest in human capital in Central America, but independently of efforts to deter migration. Prioritizing aid to potential migrants risks reducing its effectiveness. The United States should instead pursue a whole-of-government strategy that emphasizes the right relationships with aid recipients, and that prioritizes and empowers the poor and marginalized. The paper is strongly influenced by the author's 15 years of work for Catholic agencies on migration and development, more than one-half of those with Catholic Relief Services.
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This report highlights the achievements in 2021 of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM). PIM had a productive final year centered on synthesizing and packaging findings to consolidate the program's legacy while continuing to respond to demand related to the impacts of COVID-19 and preparing the transition to the new CGIAR portfolio. Among other achievements, PIM findings and engagement contributed to Myanmar's response to COVID-19, South Africa's policies on resilience to climate change, Tunisia's policies for pastoral development, a reform of Nigeria's national agricultural research system, Ghana's fish seed and farm certification system, gender strategies for three agricultural value chains in Honduras, and genome editing guidelines for the agricultural sector in four African countries. PIM research informed policy documents of FAO, IFAD, One CGIAR, the UK Government, the World Bank and the World Food Programme. PIM tools enabled more equitable co-management of 76 protected areas in Peru and informed World Bank social protection projects.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionally affected women in Honduras in terms of loss of employment and income opportunities, access to healthcare services, and increased poverty and food insecurity. The pre-pandemic gender inequalities in Honduras have resulted in harsher conditions for women since the onset of the pandemic. Early reports indicate that women have lost employment and incomes and have been burdened by other effects of the pandemic, such as more household work, childcare activities, and home schooling. Marginal groups such as indigenous women face greater challenges because of the structural and systemic inequalities which have existed for a long time. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has also differed across geographic areas and between rural and urban settings. In addition to the pandemic, the economic outlook for women in Honduras has worsened since the impact of Hurricanes Eta and Iota in November 2020, which displaced over a million people. The agricultural sector was devastated, and infrastructure was severely damaged. The recovery efforts have been slow because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper explores the root causes of gender inequalities and how it affects women's food security and health.
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Introduction: Within the worldwide efforts to reduce the rate ofinfection and mortality, vaccination against COVID-19 is determined as a safe and universal process. To guarantee the proportionate distribution ofvaccines, globalcollaboration (COVAX)hasbecome the primary strategy in the distribution of vaccines in countries such as Honduras, located among the 71 countries in the world that report the most confirmed cases and one of the lowest vaccination coverages in the Central American region, despite having one of the best cold chains in the Americas. In the following review, we will discuss the challenges faced in the process of vaccination against COVID-19 in the Honduran health system. Objectives: To determine the situation of vaccination against COVID-19 in Honduras and the challenges it presents. M ethodology: Epidemiological analysis and strategies employedin the vaccination process against COVID-19up to epidemiologicalweek30, distribution of variants of concern, confirmed cases, and mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 in Honduras. Results: Honduras has reached percentages of positivityandhospitalizations forCOVID-19similarto the peak of the pandemic in June 2020, men represent 54% ofdeaths, 48% ofdeaths are in the group between 60-79 years. The target population for vaccination in 2021 is 5 700 985 persons. In March 2021, a donation of48000vaccines (AstraZeneca)wasreceivedthrough COVAX to immunize healthcare personnel. A total of 9 212 597 doses have been received and are still in the process of being applied to prioritized groups with different levels of acceptance. As of August 16, 2021, 7 201 820 doses had been applied, distributed between first and second doses. Discussion: Honduras has one of the lowest rates of diagnostic tests performed and one of the lowest vaccination percentages in the Central American region. The cumulative case and mortality rates per million population are 37 222 and 1 019, respectively. The percentage of positivity in the year 2021 has increased. The Central-South zone of the country has become the epicenter of the pandemic with the highest number of SARS-CoV-2 variants. The highest percentage of deaths is in men and the 60-79 age group. It is specified that by 2022 all Hondurans can be vaccinated. Conclusion: Although the vaccination process is gradually developing, there are still many challenges in terms of immunization, increasing the workload of health personnel. Distancing, mandatory use of masks, and frequent hand washing remain fundamental pillars of prevention, limited by extreme poverty and a subsistence economy. © 2022 Academia Nacional de Medicina. All rights reserved.
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This paper analyzes and provides estimates of the undercount of the foreign-born in the US Census Bureau’s 2020 American Community Survey (ACS). It confirms that a differential undercount occurred in the 2020 ACS. In particular, noncitizens that arrived from Central American countries after 1981 had undercount rates of 15–25 percent, but undercount of noncitizens that arrived from European countries in the same period was not detectable by the methods described in this paper. The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) and others use ACS data to derive annual estimates of the US undocumented population. The Census Bureau recently reported that the total population count for the 2020 Census was consistent with the count for recent censuses, despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the Trump administration’s interference in the 2020 Census. Nonetheless, the accuracy of 2020 ACS data for the noncitizen population that arrived after 1981 remains a major concern given the fear generated by the Trump administration’s abusive rhetoric and anti-immigrant policies. The estimates set forth in this paper were derived by analyzing trends in annual ACS data for 2016–2020 compiled from the IPUMS website (Ruggles et al. 2021). Decennial census data cannot be used for this purpose because data on country of birth, citizenship, and year of immigration are not collected in the census. However, it is reasonable to believe that the 2020 census and the 2020 ACS experienced similar challenges because they were conducted under comparable conditions. The patterns of undercount of noncitizens described here for the 2020 ACS are likely mirrored in the 2020 census and will reduce federal funding and representation to affected cities and states for the next decade.
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Afro-descendant peoples of the Americas are disproportionately affected by overlapping crises such as climate change, the loss of biodiversity, ecological degradation, the Covid-19 pandemic, the public health crisis, extreme socioeconomic inequality, structural racism and the increase in violence against social leaders. Although the communities in what we have named the Black/Afro-descendant Natural Belt of the Americas (ANBA) have a crucial role to play in an integrated response to these crisis, and in spite of the wealth of experiences and good practices at the local and national level, not enough importance has been attributed to the central role they play in the planetary socio-ecological transition needed to overcome the climate and biodiversity crises. This article, among other topics, debates the importance of Afro-descendant communities in the implementation of a range of natural climate solutions, in the region and at a global level, in the territories that are conceptually part of this belt.
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This study was carried out, between March and May 2021, in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, to: (a) collect information and analyse the opinions, values, experiences and behaviours of rural youth in these three countries of the SICA region in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact at different levels: education, work, health, violence, gender relations, citizen/political participation and associativism, environment, climate change and natural disasters;(b) investigate, in particular, how this pandemic influences the expectations and future projects of young people at a personal, educational and work level;and (c) analyse the information gathered from a gender and intersectional analysis that allows identifying and systematizing the differences and inequalities between the genders in all the selected aspects. The study also inquired about the opinions and explanations of rural youth about different aspects of the COVID 19 pandemic, among others, ideas about its "origin", the consequences at the social and environmental levels, and prioritized means of obtaining information, with the purpose of highlighting the frameworks of meaning that are built on this stage.
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Background: The IDF Diabetes Atlas 2019 points out that SACA is the region with the highest percentage of health expenditures on diabetes, 19.4%. The total number of individuals with diabetes in the region is 31.6 million, which means a prevalence of 9.4%. Countries with the largest percentage of expenditures are Cuba (24.3%), Brazil (24.2%), and Costa Rica (21.3%), while the lowest estimates are for Argentina (5.0%) and Uruguay (6.1%). Aim: Identify if insulin, oral medicines, supplies (syringes, test strips, needles, etc.) and lab exams are fully provided (free of charge) in those countries and if there is an association between percentage of expenditures on diabetes and care provision. Method: A digital online survey with 12 multiple choice questions was shared by e-mail and WhatsApp with all IDF members organizations in the SACA region. It was open for answers between April 4th and May 5th, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The question of interest for this was specifically about access to medicines and lab exams. Mean diabetes-related expenditure (USD) per person with diabetes (20–79 years) was based on IDF Diabetes Atlas 2019 data. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare expenditures of countries providing free supplies with those without free medical supplies. Results: The questionnaire was answered by 16 of the 18 IDF SACA region countries. Colombia and El Salvador were the only countries with no response. Most of the countries reported free access to oral medicines (69%), insulins (63%), supplies (syringes, needles, test strips, etc. - 56%) and lab exams (63%). Honduras was the only country where free access started because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Associations between expenditures and provision of free oral medicines, insulins, medical supplies or exams were not statistically significant, i.e. free provision of any of the four items was not associated with higher expenditures. Discussion: Our study revealed that expenditure does not determine whether medicines, supplies and exams are provided for free or not. We hypothesize that countries spending less in providing these essential items for free are still spending similar amounts due to the high costs of treating diabetes chronic complications caused by lack of access to insulin, oral medicines, supplies and lab exams. At the same time that most of the SACA countries already count on full coverage of essential diabetes medicines and supplies, such as insulin, metformin, test strips, and exams, there are still 6 countries (Bolivia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru and Puerto Rico) lacking coverage of 3 out of four or of all essential items. It is especially worrisome that 100 years after the discovery of insulin more than a third of the countries in SACA regions still do not count on full provision of this essential life-saving medicine.
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US imports of textiles and clothing rose in value by 27.2% in 2021. As a result, they reached a record high, despite the fact that the rise had followed a 19.3% decline in the previous year—which, itself, reflected the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In volume terms, imports surged by 39.4%, also to a record high. Within the 2021 total, imports of fabrics soared by 90.7% in volume terms to a record high while imports of apparel and made-up textiles also reached record highs, having increased by 27.4% and 23.4% respectively. Imports of yarns, meanwhile, rose by 13.9% but remained below the levels seen in 2018 and 2019. As a result, the share of fabrics in total imports rose from 22.4% to 30.6%, which represented its highest level on record. But the share of apparel fell to 31.2%, which represented its lowest level in several years, and the share of made-up textiles fell to 34.5%. However, made-up textiles continued to account for the largest share of total imports, having surpassed apparel in the previous year. The share of yarns, meanwhile, fell to just 3.7%. In terms of fibre type, man-made fibre products continued to dominate US textile and apparel imports as a whole with a share of 75.8%—which was up for the 13th consecutive year. Furthermore, in apparel alone, man-made fibre products accounted for the largest share of US imports in 2021 for the eighth consecutive year. However, their share fell for the first time in 15 years—from 57.6% in 2020 to 56.2% in 2021. The average price of US textile and clothing imports fell in 2021 for the tenth year in succession to a record low of US$1.21 per sme—which was 8.8% lower than in 2020. The fall in 2021 reflected, a decline in the average price of textile imports as the average price of clothing imports remained unchanged. The USA’s biggest textile and clothing supplying country in 2021 was, by far, China. Furthermore, US textile and clothing imports from China rose by 25.1% in value and 24.3% in volume. However, these increases were slower than growth in imports from all sources and, as a result, the share of US textile and clothing imports which came from China fell in value terms from 28.2% to 27.7% and in volume terms from 46.5% to 41.5%. Of the other nine supplying countries which ranked among the leading ten, there were double and triple digit increases in imports from all nine countries in value and volume terms. The fastest growth in value terms was in US textile and clothing imports from Honduras, followed by India, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Mexico but growth was more moderate in the case of imports from Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam. © Textiles Intelligence Limited 2022.
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The diagnosis of malaria in Honduras is based mainly on microscopic observation of the parasite in thick smears or the detection of parasite antigens through rapid diagnostic tests when microscopy is not available. The specific treatment of the disease depends exclusively on the positive result of one of these tests. Given the low sensitivity of conventional methods, new diagnostic approaches are needed. This study evaluates the in-field performance of a device (Gazelle™) based on the detection of hemozoin. This was a double-blind study evaluating symptomatic individuals with suspected malaria in the department of Gracias a Dios, Honduras, using blood samples collected from 2021 to 2022. The diagnostic performance of Gazelle™ was compared with microscopy and nested 18ssr PCR as references. The sensitivity and specificity of Gazelle™ were 59.7% and 98.6%, respectively, while microscopy had a sensitivity of 64.9% and a specificity of 100%. The kappa index between microscopy and Gazelle™ was 0.9216 using microscopy as a reference. Both methods show similar effectiveness and predictive values. No statistical differences were observed between the results of the Gazelle™ compared to light microscopy (p = 0.6831). The turnaround time was shorter for Gazelle™ than for microscopy, but the cost per sample was slightly higher for Gazelle™. Gazelle™ showed more false-negative cases when infections were caused by Plasmodium falciparum compared to P. vivax. Conclusions: The sensitivity and specificity of Gazelle™ are comparable to microscopy. The simplicity and ease of use of the Gazelle™, the ability to run on batteries, and the immediacy of its results make it a valuable tool for malaria detection in the field. However, further development is required to differentiate Plasmodium species, especially in those regions requiring differentiated treatment.