A synopsis of current malaria diagnosis trends

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Malaria has remained a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the under developed and developing countries of the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Globally 3.3 billion people live in areas where malaria exists, affecting 300-500 million people annually and it is estimated to be killing approximately 1-3 million people each year and 90% of these mortalities occur in African children especially in sub Saharan Africa. Currently, although several control methods are beginning to result in downward trends in incidence in some countries, the gross number of malaria cases is still on the increase due to several factors including poor and ineffective diagnosis. Prompt and effective diagnosis is essential for the management and control of malaria. Over the years evidence has shown that traditional methods for diagnosing malaria remain problematic with a number of limitations. In this synoptic review an update of malaria diagnosis is presented and discussed highlighting the limitations and difficulties of both clinical (symptoms/ clinical signs-based) and laboratory (parasite-based) diagnosis of malaria. Enhancement of accurate malaria diagnosis is now