Malaria parasites can evade rapid tests, threatening eradication goals

Mutations that render Plasmodium falciparum invisible to these tests are spreading globally

A nurse's hand drops human blood on a small, white plastic malaria rapid test.

A health care worker at a hospital in Sierra Leone tests a blood sample for malaria. Genetic mutations that render malaria parasites invisible to such tests are spreading across Africa, Asia and South America.

Karen Kasmauski/Getty Images

Over the last couple of decades, rapid diagnostic tests have emerged as a vital tool in the fight to control malaria.