Malaria is one of the top infectious diseases along with TB and HIV. There were 216 million malaria cases and 445,000 deaths reported worldwide in 2016.

 

Early and accurate diagnosis of malaria is essential for both rapid and effective disease management and surveillance. Today, microscopy and RDTs are the primary choices for diagnosing malaria in the field, but neither method is capable of detecting low density malaria infections.

 

Thailand's malaria elimination program was endorsed in 2016 with the elimination goal of 2024. Since then, malaria morbidity and mortality have continued to decline. Yet little is known about the role of asymptomatic infections in sustaining local malaria transmission in Thailand.

 

High-quality malaria diagnosis is the key to eradicating misdiagnosis that can result in significant morbidity and mortality. Nucleic acid amplification tests (NATs) are one of methods which enable sensitive detection of low density malaria infections. We identified potential use cases of NATs to contribute to malaria elimination.

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NATs are usually run in big hospitals/ research labs by lab technicians who often hold master degrees. However, through interviews and observations, we have identified that the most critical clinical setting for running NATs to truly eliminate malaria is in peripheral areas such as country boarder where they only have trained microscopists who are at most high school graduates.

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The most critical design requirement was enabling low-skilled users to perform NATs correctly without causing any false negative/positive cases. We generated ideas and decided a lead solution which is not only simple to master the use/ easy to use but also minimises contamination risks in every steps of test.

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Currently we are planning for a clinical trials in SEA with a test system we have designed including an app which supports users throughout the workflow. 

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