New malaria test kit would help global elimination efforts

risk of death. It could also save the NHS a significant amount of money from having to treat the complications of malaria.”

The release notes that LAMP was faster than PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, which require specialized laboratory equipment, costly reagents and advanced training. It was also more accurate than microscopic examination of blood slides, which require a trained specialist to identify the malaria parasites.

In the second study, researchers from HTD, the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, Switzerland, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Uganda Ministry of Health, Kampala, looked at the accuracy of the test at a rural clinic in Uganda.

Blood samples from 272 patients with suspected malaria were tested using LA MP using a simple generator to provide electrical current. These results were compared with expert microscopy and PCR performed at central reference laboratories. LAMP detected cases of low-level malaria parasite infection that were missed by expert microscopy, and achieved accuracy similar to that of PCR down to very low levels. The researchers say these findings have important implications for eliminating malaria, which causes an estimated 660,000 deaths worldwide every year.

Sutherland, who worked on both of the studies, said: “Patterns of malaria disease in Africa and elsewhere across the tropics are becoming much less predictable, and control of malaria needs an appropriate test to identify infected individuals in the populations at risk. These people may not display any malaria symptoms.

We have begun using LAMP as a new tool for identifying “hot spots” of malaria infections which can be mopped up quickly through a combination of drug treatment, house spraying and distribution of bed-nets.

“LAMP will potentially contribute to saving many families and communities from the blight of a disease that keeps children from succeeding at school, prevents adults from growing food or working, holds back regional economies and exacts an annual death toll in the hundreds of thousands.”

The LAMP malaria test will now be used in the Malaria Reference Laboratory at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to help identify imported cases of malaria in the UK as well as being used by health workers in the field in malaria endemic countries.

The LAMP malaria test is commercially available and was developed by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London and Eiken Chemical Company Ltd, Japan. The studies were funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of The Netherlands, and the UK Department for International Development.

— Read more in Spencer D. Polley et al, “Clinical Evaluation of a LAMP test kit for Diagnosis of Imported Malaria,” Journal of Infectious Diseases (30 April 2013) (DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jit183); and Heidi Hopkins et al., “Highly sensitive detection of malaria parasitemia in an endemic setting: Performance of a new LAMP kit in a remote clinic in Uganda,” Journal of Infectious Diseases (30 April 2013) (DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jit184)