Secondary analysis of malaria rapid diagnostic tests from rounds 5–8 of WHO product testing with a focus on false-negative results

Despite the widespread use of malaria rapid diagnostic test (RDT) in clinical practice, there are a lot of challenges. We conducted a secondary analysis of 129 malaria RDT data from rounds 5–8 of the World Health Organization (WHO) product testing summary and discuss the causes of false-negative (FN) results with a focus on low parasite density, improper RDT storage, operation and interpretation, and plasmodium falciparum with a pfhrp2/3 gene deletion. The results demonstrated that the malaria RDTs currently commercially available might cause FN results in practice. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40779-021-00345-0.