[e-drug] Use of Paracheck malaria diagnotic

["Barbara Neitzert" <barbara.neitzert@online.fr>]

E-DRUG: Use of Paracheck malaria diagnotic
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Dear colleagues,

With the support of the GFATM, the malaria rapid diagnosis test called Paracheck should be widely implemented in South Sudan in the next few months (the MSFs have been using it for some time already but because of lack of funding the other NGOs couldn't).

Trying to introduce the test to the Sudanese community health workers, we noticed some problems with the test itself. Indeed, after adding the buffer solution, a kind of white mark on the filter paper appears showing that the reagent is not migrating through it homogeneously. We tried several times with the same batch and the same thing happened. Wondering if it was because of the exposure to high temperature (in South Sudan, the temperature is rarely below 35 degrees), we tried the same batch but kept in a cold room, but again we had that white area. We then tried other batches and the test ran well.

Does anyone have had the same experience? Is there some publication about this kind of problems? Did someone change the kind of rapid diagnosis test used because of similar observations?

Thanks for your help,

Barbara
 
Barbara Neitzert
Ass. Medical Coordinator
PSF -CI
South Sudan
barbara.neitzert@online.fr