PSI and WHO Create Malaria Testing Roadmap

Posted November 14, 2016

By Alena Sims, Communications Associate, PSI

WHO recommends that every suspected malaria case be confirmed by parasitological testing using microscopy or malaria rapid diagnostic tests (mRDTs) before treatment. The availability of high-quality, inexpensive mRDTs in the public sector has significantly improved and expanded diagnostic testing in the recent past. However, in the private sector, where over 40 percent of the population in malaria endemic countries seeks care and treatment for febrile illness, mRDTs are either non-existent or more expensive than the drugs used to treat malaria.

To address this gap, PSI — in partnership with Malaria Consortium, FIND, JHSPH and the WHO and with funding from UNITAID — implemented a three-year project to stimulate private sector markets for quality-assured mRDTs in five malaria-endemic, countries (Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda). The “Roadmap to Optimizing Private Sector Rapid Diagnostic Testing for Malaria,” expected to be released December 2016, was led by the WHO with support from all partners and draws significantly on the experience and data from this project.

The Roadmap provides action steps and links to practical tools to guide national malaria control programs and other key stakeholders in increasing both access to and demand for quality-assured RDTs. Practitioners can learn program planning, management and policy, procurement and quality in the private sector, supporting and sustaining the market and monitoring and evaluation in the private sector. For more information, or to receive a
copy upon publication: [email protected]. The final product will be published on WHO’s website: www.who.int/malaria/areas/diagnosis/rapid-diagnostic-tests/privatesector/en/.

This article is part of an ongoing conversation about #MakingMarketsWork in Impact Magazine No. 22 “Are We Thinking Big Enough” issue. Join in the conversation with @PSIImpact.

Photo courtesy: PSI

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PSI and WHO Create Malaria Testing Roadmap

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Digitalizing contraceptive counseling to reach rural women and girls in Ethiopia

Building community health worker capacity to deliver malaria care

Taking a market-based approach to scale sanitation in Ethiopia

Promoting self-managed care like Self-testing and Self-Sampling

Using peer coaches to counter HIV stigma in South Africa

simplifying consumers’ journey to care in Vietnam

Engaging the private sector for disease surveillance in Myanmar

Training health workers in Angola

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