Utility of rapid diagnostic tests and microscopy to detect malaria in health facilities across the Solomon Islands

Genevieve Kerr; Lyndes  Wini; John  Leaburi; Joanne Macdonald; Tanya Russell

doi:10.1186/s12936-025-05468-6

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Utility of rapid diagnostic tests and microscopy to detect malaria in health facilities across the Solomon Islands

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Utility of rapid diagnostic tests and microscopy to detect malaria in health facilities across the Solomon Islands

Genevieve Kerr, Lyndes Wini, John Leaburi, Joanne Macdonald and Tanya Russell

Malaria Journal, Vol.24(1), pp.1-11

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-025-05468-6

PMCID: PMC12235921

PMID: 40624634

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Abstract

Malaria

diagnosis

rapid diagnostic test

DHIS2

Background Accurate and efficient malaria diagnosis is critical for effective malaria control and elimination. Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) have been deployed over the last decade, particularly in rural and low-and-middle-income countries, as an alternative to microscopy-based diagnosis. Methods This study analysed retrospective health data from the Solomon Islands District Health Information System (DHIS2) for 2017–2019, focusing on factors affecting diagnostic test selection and positivity rates for microscopy versus RDTs. Results The national Annual Parasite Incidence (API) of malaria declined over the 3 years, with localised increases in specific health zones. The choice of malaria diagnostic test was associated with administrative division, patient age, health facility type and year. Overall, RDTs had higher malaria positivity rates than microscopy for both Plasmodium falciparum (microscopy, 6%; RDT, 11%) and Plasmodium vivax (microscopy, 10%; RDT, 14%). Conclusions RDTs were more widely used than microscopy in health facilities and had higher test positivity rates. This study highlights the factors influencing diagnostic test selection and underscores the importance of considering detection limits and potential overdiagnosis when interpreting positivity rates from different diagnostic methods.

Details

Title: Utility of rapid diagnostic tests and microscopy to detect malaria in health facilities across the Solomon Islands
Authors: Genevieve Kerr - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Lyndes Wini - Ministry of Health & Medical Services (Solomon Islands)
John Leaburi - Ministry of Health & Medical Services (Solomon Islands)
Joanne Macdonald - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Bioinnovation
Tanya Russell (Corresponding Author) - James Cook University
Publication details: Malaria Journal, Vol.24(1), pp.1-11
Publisher: BioMed Central Ltd.
Date published: 2025
DOI: 10.1186/s12936-025-05468-6
ISSN: 1475-2875
PMID: 40624634; PMC12235921
Copyright note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Data Availability: The data that support the findings of this study is owned by the Ministry of Health of the Solomon Islands and are not publicly available. The data was used under license for the current study. The data can be made available upon reasonable request and after receiving permission from the Ministry of Health, Solomon Islands.
Grant note: GK was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. TLR was supported by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade [Complex Grant Agreement 75894].
Organisation Unit: School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Centre for Bioinnovation
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991142640002621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Infectious Diseases; Parasitology; Tropical Medicine

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