Reply to yansouni et al

摘要

The syndrome of fever is among the most common reasons for persons to seek healthcare in the developing world, yet burden of disease estimates are not available for the syndrome overall nor for many of its individual etiologies, fueling neglect. Yansouni and colleagues [1] highlight challenges and pitfalls associated with managing febrile patients in low-resource areas, where ep-idemiologic and diagnostic information is limited. They point to the potential for rapid diagnostics tests (RDTs) to inform management decisions and improve patient outcomes. Malaria RDTs with robust performance characteristics are available [2] and, if widely used and applied, could have a major influence on how febrile patients are managed and how antimalarial drugs are prescribed.