G6PD rapid diagnostic tests

For the treatment of Plasmodium vivax malaria, WHO recommends standard antimalarial medicines followed by a 14-day regimen of primaquine to prevent relapses of the disease. Though highly effective, primaquine has been associated with a key safety challenge: among patients who have a deficiency of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), the drug can trigger a severe blood disorder known as acute haemolytic anaemia.

G6PD deficiency is a hereditary condition resulting from a structural defect in the G6PD enzyme, and affects more than 400 million people worldwide and there is considerable geographical overlap between the prevalence of G6PD deficiency and the prevalence of P. vivax. The most severe G6PD variants are found in areas where P. vivax is the predominant malaria species.