Since primaquine is well known to hemolyzes red blood cells from patients with glucose phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, it is absolutely essential that before primaquine is administered to a patient with either P.vivax or P. ovale the patient should be tested for the presence of this enzyme in their red blood cells. If there is no enzyme present then other medications, or different approaches should be considered. It is rare for Africans, or African descendants to contract P. vivax as their red cells do not contain a protein on their surface that permits vivax to enter the red blood cells. This glycoprotein is called the Duffy antigen. The vast majority of these cases are P. falciparum malaria, though P.ovale and P. malariae are also present.
Malaria is also prevalent in Southeast Asia, India, South and Central America.
The map above shows the current distribution of drug resistant falciparum malaria. The classic method for diagnosis of malaria is the examination of blood under the light microscope. This method is sensitive and specific but very labor intensive, and requires a well-functioning, high quality microscope, and is highly skilled personnel. These instruments and this expertise is not always available. To address some of these limitations in diagnosis, Flow Inc. has developed a rapid, sensitive, and easy to perform dip-stick method for the diagnosis, speciation, and for the therapeutic monitoring of malaria.