In malaria endemic countries, approximately 40% of the population seek care and treatment for febrile illnesses in the private sector. Successful malaria control, therefore, greatly depends on effective diagnosis and treatment within private sector outlets.
Malaria diagnosis with Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) is a clinical service and as such Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are required to guide private sector providers. These SOPs for RDTs provide a standardized procedure to perform RDTs as agreed by private providers, trainers and supervisors. SOPs should be referred to as the ‘gold standard’ private providers aim to reach when administering and reading an RDT.
Contents include:
- Materials required to perform RDTs
- Preparing to perform the test
- RDT procedure
These Standard Operating Procedures for RDTs are part of a larger Quality Assurance Manual and Toolkit developed through the UNITAID Private Sector RDT project to provide guidance on quality assurance for FCM in the private sector.