Читать книгу Practical Guide to Diagnostic Parasitology - Lynne Shore Garcia - Страница 91

All requests for malaria diagnosis are considered STAT requests, and specimens should be collected, processed, examined, and reported accordingly. All requests for examination of blood films should include a possible diagnosis of malaria; thus, these requests are always considered STAT. Not only the blood collection should be considered STAT, but also the processing and examination of both thick and thin blood films should be performed immediately on receipt of the blood (Table 3.6). Immunologically naive individuals with no prior exposure to malaria often present to the emergency room or clinic with symptoms such as fever and malaise and a relevant travel history to an area of the world where malaria is endemic. These patients often have vague symptoms, but have the potential to become very ill with malaria, even with a low parasitemia (0.0005% to 0.1%).