One-Minute Malaria Test Detects Significantly More P. vivax Than Current Rapid Tests in Clinical Study Published in Malaria Journal

The double-blind study was based on 300 participants who sought care from Fundacão de Medicina Tropical Doutor Heitor Vieira Dourado (FMT-HVD), located in Manaus, an area in the Western Brazilian Amazon, heavily endemic for P. vivax.

“Because P. vivax is not adequately detected by current tests, the infection is frequently missed, and patients don’t receive essential treatment,” said Dr. Marcus Lacerda, Infectious Disease Researcher at FMT-HVD and lead investigator for the study. “This causes recurrent symptoms and contributes to the spread of the disease. These results shows that we’re on a path to reduced suffering and faster malaria elimination.”

P. vivax is the second most prevalent malaria species infecting humans and is widespread among many countries seeking to eliminate malaria. Although considered less deadly than P. falciparum (the most common species), P. vivax infections can result in serious illness and mortality. Additionally, P. vivax presents a special challenge for diagnostics due to its typically low levels of parasitemia. Current RDTs miss many P. vivax infections, thus light microscopy, which is time-consuming and requires skilled technicians, is the current best option for many regions of the world. Researchers at FMT-HVD noted that the Gazelle Malaria Test’s use of hemozoin, a highly specific biomarker present in all species of malaria, shows promise for detecting low parasitemia P. vivax infections.

When compared to optical microscopy in this study, the sensitivity and specificity of the Gazelle test were 96.2% and 100% respectively, whereas for RDTs they were 83.9% and 100%. This equates to RDTs missing 16 cases of P. vivax infection per 100 people, and Gazelle missing only 4.

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