According to the latest figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO), there will be an estimated 229 million cases of malaria in 2019 worldwide, resulting in 409,000 deaths, a large proportion of which will occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Children under 5 years of age are the most vulnerable, accounting for 67% of deaths worldwide.
Malaria infection is transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes. WHO recommends early diagnosis and treatment to reduce the intensity of the disease and the number of deaths. Several techniques are available to diagnose Plasmodium infection: blood smear, thick drop, rapid test and molecular test (e.g. PCR).
Combined detection
• Pf: gene specific to Plasmodium falciparum.
• PAN: gene common to all 5 human pathogenic species.
Highly sensitive
• Detection limit of 0.3 parasites/μL on a blood sample.
• Detection limit of 0.05 parasites/μL on extracted DNA.
• More sensitive than microscopic observation (≈100 parasites/μL).
Practical
• Ready-to-use aliquoted Master Mix: reduced risk of contamination.
• Simplified protocol on blood sample: less than 10 minutes of preparation and result in 1 hour.
• Extracted DNA protocol: highly sensitive qualitative or semi-quantitative method and result in less than 2 hours.