Curb the dengue and malaria menace with early diagnosis
With the spike in malaria and dengue during the monsoons, clinicians are faced with the challenge of quick and accurate testing and finding new ways to reach out to the endemic areas. Since both these vector-borne diseases exhibit symptoms also evident in many other viral infections, the onus is on the laboratories to select testing methods that correctly identify the parameters specific to these two diseases. A swell in the volume of cases each year, has brought Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs ) into the limelight. RDTs offer pathologists an immediate answer to whether a person is infected or not and are an ideal choice in a resource constraint setting. Besides offering a faster response time, RDTs also offer the benefit of combination tests (NS1 Ag and differential IgG / IgM Ab in the case of dengue and differential diagnosis of falciparum and vivax infection, in the case of malaria) which is particularly advantageous when patients report on the fourth or fifth day of feve...