Saliva Testing a Painless Alternative for Malaria Diagnosis
By Linda on Nov 16, 2009 in Infections | comments(0)
DEHLI (Reuters Health) – Diagnosis of malaria by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of saliva is non-invasive and comparable to the current gold standard blood smear examination, a multicenter group of researchers reports.
A rapid test for malaria that has a high sensitivity and specificity “could potentially avert more than 100,000 malaria-related deaths each year and save nearly $200 million that is spent on unnecessary treatments annually,” Dr. Davis C. Nwakanma from the Medical Research Council, Fajara, Banjul, Gambia and his team and colleagues estimate. Continued
