Study reveals substantial misdiagnosis of malaria in parts of Asia

Substantial over-diagnosis and mistreatment of malaria is evident in south and central Asia, according to research led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine . The authors warn that with more than two billion people at risk of malaria in this part of Asia – larger than that of Africa – this is a major public health problem which needs to be confronted. Malaria remains one of the most important infectious diseases of poverty. Recent global malaria treatment guidelines recommend that patients are treated with anti-malaria drugs only when a diagnostic test positively identifies malaria parasites in the patient’s blood. In Africa, many patients are treated for malaria even when the parasite test is negative, resulting in other severe infections being missed and drugs being wasted. Yet, the extent of this problem in south and central Asia is relatively unknown. A team of researchers from the School therefore set out to...