Performance evaluation of RDT, light microscopy, and PET-PCR for detecting Plasmodium falciparum malaria infections in the 2018 Zambia National Malaria Indicator Survey.

RDTs and LM both perform well across a range of transmission intensities within their respective target applications, i.e., in the community, for the former, where ease of use and speed of result is critical, and at the health facility, for the latter, where accuracy is prioritized. However, the performance of both diagnostic methods is adversely affected by low parasitaemia infections. As Zambia moves towards elimination more sensitive tools may be required to identify the last cases.