Accuracy of malaria rapid diagnostic tests in community studies and their impact on treatment of malaria in an area with declining malaria burden in north-eastern Tanzania

Table 5 Prescription of anti-malarial drugs by CORPs to febrile patients based on presence or absence of RDT results

Type of patients	Patients with BS +ve (%)	Patients treated (% )	Patients treated with RDT +ve(%)	Patients treated with RDT -ve (%)	Patients treated with BS +ve (%)	Patients treated with BS -ve (%)
Pre-RDTs
Total(5576)	1130(20.5)	5478(98.6)	NA	NA	1107(20.1)‡	4319(78.5)
< 5 yrs(1065)	282(26.8)	1030(97.2)	NA	NA	260(24.8) †	750(71.6)
≥5 yrs(4511)	884(19.0)	4448(98.9)	NA	NA	838(18.8) §	3560(80.1)
Post-RDTs
Total(18217)	3779(20.8)	8562(47.3)	4893(27.1)*	3629(20.1)	3383(18.7)#	5177(28.6)
< 5 yrs(4275)	850 (19.9)	4122(96.6)	951(22.4)**	3154(74.3)	826(19.4)##	3296(77.3)
≥5 yrs(13942)	2929 (21.0)	4440(32.1)	3942(28.6)***	475(3.4)	2537(18.5)###	1881(13.6)

BS = blood smear, RDT = malaria rapid diagnostic test, +ve = positive, -ve = negative, NA = not applicable
For cases with treatment records, ‡5494 in the pre-RDTs period (†1048 under-fives and §4446 aged≥5 years old) had smear results by microscopy; in the post-RDT period, *18034 cases (**4247 under-fives and ***13787 with ≥5 years old) had RDT results while #18087 (##4266 under-fives and ###13821 aged ≥5 years old) had blood smear results by microscopy; and these were used as denominators.

ISSN: 1475-2875