Sensitive near point-of-care detection of asymptomatic and submicroscopic Plasmodium falciparum infections in African endemic countries
- Dimbintsoa Rakotomalala Robinson
- Ivana Pennisi
- Matthew L. Cavuto
- Francois Kiemde
- Martin Chamai
- Diane Yirgnur Some
- Elliot Quigley
- Kenny Malpartida-Cardenas
- Mamadou O. Ndiath
- Simon Correa
- Bubacarr Darboe
- Lindsay B. Stewart
- Pantelis Georgiou
- Mamadu Baldeh
- Halidou Tinto
- Aubrey J. Cunnington
- Annette Erhart
- Umberto D’Alessandro
- Jesus Rodriguez-Manzano
- Azumah Abdul-Tawab
- Jamal-Deen Abdulai
- Mohammed Abumanga
- Jane Achan
- Darlington A. Akogo
- Angelina A. Amengu
- Linda E. Amoah
- Tochukwu D. Anyaduba
- Emilia A. Udofia
- Gordon A. Awandare
- Frances B. da-Costa Vroom
- Leonard Baatiema
- Kevin Baker
- Fatou Baldeh
- Julie Balen
- Jake Baum
- Weston Baxter
- Craig Bonnington
- Salome A. Bukachi
- Céire E. Costelloe
- Luc P. de Witte
- Samuel Duodu
- Francis Dzabeng
- Fahad A. Elnour
- Joe Fitchett
- Sahar Gamil
- Sebastian S. Hachizovu
- Prudence Hamade
- Muzamil M. Abdel Hamid
- Jethro A. Herberg
- Waleed M. A. Jebreel
2025-10-10
Limited diagnostic capacity for detecting asymptomatic malaria infections with low parasite densities hinders elimination efforts in Africa. Here, we adapt a near point-of-care, LAMP-based diagnostic platform for malaria diagnosis using capillary blood. This Pan/ Pf detection method meets the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (malERA) criteria for community-level screening, with a limit of detection of 0.6 parasites/μL and a sample-to-result time under 45 minutes. We evaluate its performance on 672 capillary blood samples collected at the community level in The Gambia and Burkina Faso, including 146 Plasmodium falciparum positives confirmed by qPCR. The diagnostic platform achieved 95.2% sensitivity (95% CI: 90.4–98.1) and 96.8% specificity (95% CI: 94.9–98.0). It also detected 94.9% (130/137) of asymptomatic infections and 95.3% (41/43) of submicroscopic cases (<16 parasites/μL), outperforming expert microscopy (70.1% and 0%) and rapid diagnostic tests (49.6% and 4.7%). This field-deployable molecular diagnostic method offers a sensitive, scalable solution to support test-and-treat strategies for malaria elimination across Africa.