Major Threat to Malaria Control Programs by Plasmodium falciparum Lacking Histidine-Rich Protein 2, Eritrea.

False-negative results for Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein (HRP) 2-based rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are increasing in Eritrea. We investigated HRP gene 2/3 (pfhrp2/pfhrp3) status in 50 infected patients at 2 hospitals. We showed that 80.

Rapid diagnostic tests failing to detect Plasmodium falciparum infections in Eritrea: an investigation of reported false negative RDT results.

Background: Relatively large number of false-negative malaria rapid diagnostic test (RDT) results for microscopically confirmed Plasmodium falciparum cases were reported from five of the six administrative regions of Eritrea in 2015. This activated the Ministry of Health to conduct an initial exploratory investigation. The main objective of the investigation was to confirm the sensitivity of the RDTs in the field in microscopically confirmed malaria cases, identify the possible causes of the failure and recommend further actions to be taken.