Zambia: Malaria over-diagnosis and over-treatment

Malaria diagnostics are grossly underused and there is widespread over-treatment for malaria in patients with negative test results in Zambia, according to the findings of a cross-sectional survey published in the May 23-30th edition of the Journal of American Medical Association. The study calls for the provision of new tools to reduce the overuse of expensive antimalarial treatments and recommends a major change in the treatment of fever in patients without malaria.