Diagnosis Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Malaria must be recognized promptly in order to treat the patient and to prevent further spread of infection in the community. Delay in diagnosis and treatment is a leading cause of death in malaria patients.
Malaria can be suspected based on the patient's symptoms and the physical findings at examination. However, for a definitive diagnosis to be made, laboratory tests must demonstrate the malaria parasites or their components.
Treatment varies according to the infecting species, the geographic area where the infection was acquired, and the severity of the disease.
- Tool Designer Organization:
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- View :
- Online tool, DPDx, more info from CDC
- Contact:
- nciddpdmalaria, DPDx
Summary of main features
- Purpose
- Guidance to diagnose malaria effectively
- Scope of interventions
- Clinical diagnosis, microscopic diagnosis, antigen detection, and molecular diagnosis
- Limitations
- Output
- Diagnostic findings: Microscopic identification is the method most frequently used to demonstrate an active infection. This resource offers morphological comparison and images of Plasmodium species; molecular diagnosis techniques that can complement microscopy, especially in species identification; antibody detection for detecting past (not necessarily active) infections; immunologic/biochemical detection of malaria parasite products that are available and under evaluation; and bench aids for malaria.
- Time frame
- 3-6 month activity timelines
- Potential users
- Health care providers needing assistance with diagnosis or management of suspected cases of malaria
- Skills required
- NA
- Type of software
- Web application
- User manual available?
- NA
- Type and length of training required
- NA
- Available languages
- English only
- Country applications
- Last update and version