Does an antimalarial drug history mean anything?

Abstract

Objective: To determine the validity of an antimalarial drug history.

Design: During a chloroquine sensitivity study carried out from 27 February to 13 April, 1995, an antimalarial drug history was obtained from the patients. A urine test was used as a gold standard to screen for antimalarial drugs in these patients.

Setting: Two Mutare district primary health care centres.

Subjects: Fifty clinical malaria cases were screened.

Main outcome measures: Cases were classified in a two by two contingency table based on the reported antimalarial drug and the results of the urine test. Positive predictive value and negative predictive value were then examined.