Comparison of artemether and quinine in the treatment of severe falciparum malaria in south-east Thailand.

One hundred and two Thai patients with severe falciparum malaria (92 males and 10 females) were allocated at random to receive either the standard regimen of quinine infusion (52 cases) or intramuscular artemether (50 cases). The patients in both groups had comparable admission clinical and laboratory data. Artemether gave a better survival rate (87.

Field study of an antigen-detection ELISA specific for Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

We field-tested a specific antigen-detection enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on the histidine-rich protein of Plasmodium falciparum, in a district hospital in Thailand. The test was simple to perform, takes less than 3 h to complete, can deal with batches of sera, be read visually, and was 98.05% sensitive and 96.

Acridine orange fluorescent microscopy and the detection of malaria in populations with low-density parasitemia.

Detection of low-density malaria parasites with Giemsa-stained thick smears (G-TS) requires time and experience and becomes impractical with high sample loads. Acridine orange fluorescent microscopy (AO/FM) of capillary centrifuged blood may offer an alternative technique. We compared AO/FM readings with G-TS in 290 specimens from asymptomatic people in Thai villages endemic for malaria.

Detection of Plasmodia in acridine orange stained capillary tubes (the QBC system).

The sensitivity, specificity and convenience of carrying out malaria diagnosis in acridine orange stained capillary tubes using a fluorescent microscope (the QBC system) was compared to screening for Plasmodia on conventional Giemsa stained thick smears. A dilution study revealed that the QBC is able to detect Plasmodia in as low a dilution as 5 organisms per ul. The QBC system was evaluated at a district hospital in Thailand.