Diagnosis and Treatment
Diagnosis of malaria is done at the primary health care centers, at the hospitals, by community health workers or during Active Case Detection surveys. The standard for malaria diagnosis is microscopic analysis of blood slides. Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTS) are used, whenever microscopic diagnosis is not a readily available option. All RDT results are cross-checked by microscopy, reading of the slides can be done at a later time or date.
Treatment of infected persons depends on the malaria species identified in the diagnosis. National treatment guidelines should be followed. Arthemisinin combination therapy is generally used for P. falciparum infection, while a combination of Chloroquine and Primaquine is administered for P. vivax infection. P. malariae infection are rare, and mostly occur in mixed infections.
