Diagnosis

Microscopic analysis of blood in a clinical laboratory setting is the acknowledged “gold standard” of malaria diagnosis.  

In addition to confirming the presence of malarial parasites microscopic analysis will determine the severity of the infestation and the exact strain of malarial parasite. Plasmodium falciparum is the most common strain of malarial parasitic infection. It also presents the greatest risk of fatality.  

Wherever there is medical laboratory capability there is also an associated clinical infrastructure that can initiate immediate treatment in the case of a positive diagnosis. 

So if you start to feel the onset of flu-like symptoms when you’re either in or very close to a city with good medical infrastructure then you should urgently visit a hospital or a clinic and seek professional medical consultation. 

However if you start to feel fluey when you’re travelling away from a city or if you’re based in a remote or rural area with little or no quality medical infrastructure then you have a dilemma. You cannot just hope it’s flu and lie in bed for a couple of days waiting for it to pass – that’s how malaria kills you. 

A Malarex Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test Kit gives you the ability to know within 10 minutes if you have malaria or not. The tests can be taken wherever you are at any time of day or night – in a hotel room, in an office, on a plane, on a beach, or just about anywhere else. Test yourself or ask a colleague or friend to help you. The Step by Step User Guide is extremely easy to follow and administering a test takes no more than a few minutes, with the test result taking only a further 10 minutes. 

RDTs detect the presence of malarial parasites and also separately indicate whether an infection is caused by the most dangerous parasitic strain (plasmodium falciparum) or one of the other three strains (plasmodium vivax, plasmodium ovale or plasmodium malariae). 

RDTs do not detect the severity of parasitic infestation however. Only microscopic analysis can do that. 

If you test positive you should immediately move to a medically competent location to minimise your risk of serious medical complications including death. You should urgently consult a physician and you will probably be prescribed with a combination drug therapy containing artemether and lumefantrine (a 24 tablet course of treatment usually branded as either Riamet or Coartem, or also issued sometimes under a generic brand). This treatment will usually eradicate all traces of plasmodium parasitic infection within 3 days.