ABSTRACT
The gold standard test for malaria is the hundred-year-old method of preparing a blood smear on a glass slide, staining it, and examining it under a microscope to look for the parasite genus Plasmodium. While several rapid diagnostic tests are also currently available, they still have shortcomings compared to microscopic analysis [18]. In the regions worst affected by malaria, reliable diagnoses are often difficult to obtain, and treatment is routinely prescribed based only on symptoms. Accurate diagnosis is clearly important, since false negatives can be fatal and false positives lead to increased drug resistance, unnecessary economic burden, and possibly the failure to treat diseases with similar early symptoms such as meningitis or typhoid.
