ABSTRACT
Malaria is the world's fatal parasitic disease. The ability to quickly and accurately identify malaria infection in challenging environments is crucial to allow efficient administration of the best treatment regime for human patients. If those techniques are accessible and efficient, global detection of Plasmodium species will become more sensitive, allowing faster and more precise action to be taken for disease control strategies. Recent advances in technology have enhanced our ability to diagnose different species of Plasmodium parasites with greater sensitivity and specificity. This literature review provides a summary and discussion of the current methods for the diagnosis and identification of Plasmodium spp. in human blood samples. So far not a single method is precise, but advanced technologies give consistent identification of a Plasmodium infection in endemic regions. By using the power of the recent methods, we can provide a broader understanding of the multiplicity of infection and or transmission dynamics of Plasmodium spp. This will result in improved disease control strategies, better-informed policy, and effective treatment for malaria-positive patients.
ABSTRACT
Malaria is the world's deadliest parasitic disease. Great progress has been made in the fight against malaria over the past two decades, but this has recently begun to plateau, in part due to the global development of antimalarial drug resistance. The ability to track drug resistance is necessary to achieve progress in treatment, disease surveillance and epidemiology, which has prompted the development of advanced diagnostic methods. These new methods provide unprecedented access to information that can help to guide public health policies. Development of new technologies increases the potential for high throughput and reduced costs of diagnostic tests; improving the accessibility of tools to investigate the forces driving disease dynamics and, ultimately, clinical outcomes for malaria patients and public health. This literature review provides a summary of the methods currently available for the detection of antimalarial drug resistance from the examination of patients' blood samples. While no single method is perfect for every application, many of the newly developed methods give promise for more reliable and efficient characterisation of Plasmodium resistance in a range of settings. By exploiting the strengths of the tools available, we can develop a deeper understanding of the evolutionary and spatiotemporal dynamics of this disease. This will translate into more effective disease control, better-informed policy, and more timely and successful treatment for malaria patients.
