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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Malaria is major public health issue and Ballari is an endemic area. Peripheral blood smear examination (PBS) is done routinely. However, PBS during febrile period is essential for demonstration of parasite. In most cases, sample collection during afebrile period or at inappropriate timings results in smear negative reports. Hence, rapid antigen detection tests would be ideal or can be a supportive test to early diagnosis of malaria. To compare PBS examination with rapid antigen detection tests (RDT) and estimate prevalence of malaria. Patients with PUO attending VIMS, June-October 2016 were included in cross sectional study. 1 ml venous blood collected into EDTA bulbs and subjected to antigen detection using commercially available kits (SD Bioline) and then PBS was prepared and stained using Leishman stain. Among the 2979 samples, 1616 (54.24%) and 1363 (45.75%) were tested during Monsoon and post-monsoon period respectively. Among the 1616 samples, 12 (0.74%) were positive, of which 12 (100%) were tested positive by RDT, while 3(25%) samples were positive by PBS, while all 1363 samples were negative. The age group affected was 20-40 years (75%) with sex ratio of 3:1 (M: F) showing male preponderances (75%). Geographic prevalence showed high positive trend in urban Ballari (50%). The sensitivity (75%) and specificity (100%) was with RDT compared with PBS. Study revealed declining trend of malaria in 2016. Rapid antigen detection kits are more specific and sensitive in detection of the malarial parasites especially in endemic areas even with low parasitaemia.