Malaria rapid diagnostic tests reliably detect asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum infections in school-aged children that are infectious to mosquitoes

Table 1 Plasmodium infections in 170 asymptomatic school-aged children detected by qPCR assays, mRDT and LM

Diagnostics	n^a	n/N^b (%)^c	95% CI (%)^d	Parasite densities per diagnostic method
qPCR
P. falciparum (PlasQ assay)	54	31.7	25.2–39.1	6 (0.1–275,000)
P. malariae (PlasID assay)	1	0.6	0.001–3.3	–
mRDT	31	18.2	13.2–24.7	35 (0.1–275,000)^e
LM
P. falciparum all stages	16	9.4	5.9–14.7	1439 (133–173,000)^f
P. falciparum asexual stages	10	5.8	3.2–10.5	–
P. falciparum gametocytes	6	2.3	0.1–5.9	48 (16–128)^g
P. malariae all stages	1	0.6	0.001–3.3	–
Gametocyte-specific RT-qPCR
P. falciparum female gametocytes (pfs25)	31	18.2	13.2–24.7	–

qPCR quantitative polymerase chain technique; mRDT malaria rapid diagnostic test; LM light microscopy; RT-qPCR reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain technique
^an = number of positive participants
^bN = 170 participants tested in total
^cn/N (%) = percent positive
^d95% CI = 95% confidence interval
^eMedian parasite densities quantified by PlasQ as detected by qPCR and mRDT in parasites/µL. Range of densities in brackets
^fMedian asexual parasite densities quantified by LM in parasites/µL. Range of densities in brackets
^gMedian sexual parasite densities quantified by LM, in gametocytes/µL. Range of densities in brackets

ISSN: 1756-3305