Key Action 5: Request a Malaria Test and Respect the Test Results
To ensure you get the proper treatment and recover fully, you need to be tested for malaria at a health facility or by a community health worker. Malaria tests are the only way to know for sure if a person has malaria.
Encourage community members to accept the malaria test results and follow treatment instructions according to guidance from the healthcare worker. Only accept malaria treatment if you have tested positive for malaria.
- Request a malaria test when you go to a health facility or visit a community health worker with malaria symptoms.
- Accept the results of the malaria test.
- Only accept malaria treatment if you have tested positive for malaria (where available).
- Health care facilities have rapid diagnostic tests or use microscopes to tell if a person has malaria or not.
- Taking a malaria test is the only way to know for sure if someone has malaria.
- Malaria tests are important to get the proper treatment and recover fully.
- If you test negative for malaria, malarial medication will not be useful, and you should not take it.
- Health care workers are specially trained. Follow the instructions they give you based on your test results.
