Accuracy of diagnosis among clinical malaria patients: comparing microscopy, RDT and a highly sensitive quantitative PCR looking at the implications for submicroscopic infections

RDT outperformed microscopy for the diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in the study. However, both tests missed over 40% of infections that were detected by varATS qPCR. Novel tools are needed to ensure prompt diagnosis of all clinical malaria cases.