[Can the thick drop/smear examination for malaria be replaced by a rapid diagnostic test in first intention? The...

Malaria is a public health problem in the French island of Mayotte (160,000 inhabitants) in the Indian Ocean. In the late 1990, resistance to chloroquine greatly increased, and so did the number of malaria cases, so that a new health policy had to be adopted. Since 2001, the initial smear/thick drop examination, the results of which took too long to obtain, has systematically been replaced by a rapid diagnosis test (Optimal IT Diamed) in all hospitals and public health centers.

Epidemiological data of malaria on the island was collected and a prospective study was made from March 2005 to February 2006, on two sites (the emergency department of the main hospital and a rural health centre) on all patients presenting with malaria (104 and 139 cases respectively).

The first Optimal IT test diagnosed the condition accurately in 88 and 96% of the cases, respectively. Every time symptoms would persist after negative test results and an Optimal IT test was repeated within three days, the parasitemia level was low (0.08 to 0.66%). Very low parasitemia level was very likely to account for a false negative (test result).

These results concerning malaria (and its epidemiological data) in Mayotte show that the initial use of an Optimal IT test instead of the thin/thick blood smear results in a faster management of patients with malaria, although the Optimal IT test is slightly less sensitive and requires training/practice.