Background: Malaria remains a major public health concern in India and the epidemiology differs across the country. India has reported the half of the Plasmodium Vivax burden in global settings. The mainstay of malaria diagnosis has been microscopic examination of blood and more recently, rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs). Given the practical limitations of microscopy, RDTs and nucleic acid-based detection strategies such as PCR, significant gaps remain in diagnosis of malaria for efficient population-based management programs. There is an acute need for improved malaria diagnostics that are not only affordable but also rapid, easily administered, and highly accurate, that detect species and strains that other diagnostics may miss, such as P. vivax and P. falciparum with HRP2 deletion.
Objectives: To evaluate a rapid (<1 minute) hemozoin based malaria detection device (GazelleTM) to detect malaria parasites in a blood sample
Methodology: A total number of 238 symptomatic patients suspected to have malaria were enrolled at Kasturba medical college, Manipal. 2ml of blood sample was collected for the evaluation of a novel hemozoin based diagnostic assay. All the samples were tested with Gazelle and compared with Microscopy, RDT and PCR.
Results: Out of 238 samples 25 were positive by PCR and 22 were by microscopy. The sensitivity of Gazelle and specificity was 100% and 98.6% when it was compared to microscopy, 88% and 98.6% to PCR respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of RDT was 100% when it was compared to microscopy and 88% to PCR.
Conclusions: The Gazelle is a rapid (<1 minute) diagnostic device and was shown to have good sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Its speed, cost-efficiency, makes it a potential alternative diagnostic for malaria screening in field settings.