Prevalence of Asymptomatic Malaria among Children in the Tamale Metropolis: How Does the PfHRP2 CareStart™ RDT Perform against Microscopy?

Background. Asymptomatic carriage of the malaria parasites, likewise its misdiagnosis, especially false negatives, due to the use of substandard rapid diagnosis tests (RDTs) has been shown to hinder the progress of the fight against malaria. Method. The study assessed the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria as well as the performance of Plasmodium falciparum-specific protein and histidine-rich protein 2 (PfHRP2) CareStart (TM) RDT against standard microscopy in the detection of malaria infection among 345 children (1-15 yrs) from two (2) basic schools in Tamale Metropolis. Results. From the microscopy (considered as gold standard), prevalence of malaria among the asymptomatic children was found to be 2.6%, with sensitivity and specificity of CareStart (TM) RDT in detecting P. falciparum infections found to be 55.6% and 93.8%, respectively. The positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of CareStart (TM) RDT were found to be 19.23% and 98.45%, respectively. There was an evidence showing a significant relation between CareStart (TM) RDT and microscopy in determining malaria infection (chi(2) = 30.579, p<0.001). Conclusion. Prevalence of asymptomatic malaria among children was found to be 2.6%. The study reported low sensitivity and PPV for PfHRP2 CareStart (TM) RDT in an asymptomatic population at instances of low parasitaemia.