Review of adherence to malaria rapid diagnostic testing in different health care settings

Abstract

Background: The antimalarial prescription response that community health workers (CHWs) and hospital workers in Africa give when faced with the new rapid diagnostic testing technologies for malaria. Objectives: To understand why health workers subsequent treatment patterns are not always in alignment with the diagnostic result, especially when faced with negative test results- they frequently prescribe anti-malaria drugs despite these negative results. Data Sources: Articles stemming from PubMed, the WHO, and the CDC. In reference to the PubMed articles used for the presentation of published results, the articles range from 2007-2012 and were found via PubMed using the MeSH search terms Africa, malaria, rapid, Malaria/diagnosis, health, community, residence characteristics, hospital, and hospitals. [TRUNCATED]