Evaluation of the Deki Reader™, an automated RDT reader and data management device, in a household survey setting in low malaria endemic southwestern Uganda
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Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Malaria Journal
Abstract
Early diagnosis of suspected malaria cases with a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) has been shown to be an
effective malaria control tool used in many resource-constrained settings. However, poor quality control and quality
assurance hinder the accurate reporting of malaria diagnoses. Recent use of a portable, battery operated RDT reader
(Deki Reader™, Fio Corporation) has shown to have high agreement with visual inspection across diverse health
centre settings, however evidence of its feasibility and usability during cross sectional surveys are limited. This study
aimed to evaluate the performance of the Deki Reader™ in a cross-sectional survey of children from southwestern
Uganda.
Methods: A two-stage, stratified cluster sampling survey was conducted between July and October 2014 in
three districts of southwestern Uganda, with varying malaria transmission intensities. A total of 566 children aged
6–59 months were included in the analysis. Blood samples were collected and tested for malaria using: the SD Bioline
Malaria Ag Pf/Pan RDT and microscopy. Results were compared between visual inspection of the RDT and by the Deki
Reader™. Diagnostic performance of both methods were compared to gold-standard microscopy.
Results: The sensitivity and specificity of the Deki Reader™ was 94.1% (95% CI 69.2–99.6%) and 95.6% (95% CI
93.4–97.1%), respectively. The overall percent agreement between the Deki Reader™ and visual RDT inspection was
98.9% (95% CI 93.2–99.8), with kappa statistic of 0.92 (95% CI 0.85–0.98).
Conclusions: The findings from this study suggest that the Deki Reader™ is comparable to visual inspection and
performs well in detecting microscopy-positive Plasmodium falciparum cases in a household survey setting. However,
the reader’s performance was highly dependent on ensuring adequate battery life and a work environment free of
dirt particles.
Description
Keywords
Deki, Reader, Malaria, Rapid diagnostic test, Malaria surveillance, Uganda
Citation
Oyet, C., Roh, M. E., Kiwanuka, G. N., Orikiriza, P., Wade, M., Parikh, S., ... & Boum, Y. (2017). Evaluation of the Deki Reader™, an automated RDT reader and data management device, in a household survey setting in low malaria endemic southwestern Uganda. Malaria Journal, 16(1), 1-6. DOI 10.1186/s12936-017-2094-3