Malaria Diagnosis Across Endemic and Non-Endemic Settings: Epidemiological and Clinical Implications

Malaria remains a major global health challenge, disproportionately affecting populations in endemic regions while posing a distinct diagnostic burden in non-endemic areas through travel, migration, and imported cases. Diagnostic strategies differ markedly between these two contexts- shaped by local infrastructure, disease prevalence, and clinical familiarity with malaria - with direct consequences for individual patient outcomes, surveillance accuracy, and health policy.This Research Topic brings together epidemiological and clinical perspectives on how diagnostic and surveillance strategies for malaria differ, and what these differences reveal about the disease's true burden, across transmission settings. Rather than focusing on the diagnostic technologies themselves, we welcome contributions examining how diagnostic and surveillance practices shape clinical management, case reporting, and public health response in both endemic and non-endemic contexts.We welcome original research, systematic reviews, and perspective pieces addressing, but not limited to:• Epidemiological surveillance strategies and their impact on estimates of malaria burden in endemic settings, including field-based and environmental/entomological surveillance approaches• Diagnostic and management challenges for imported malaria in non-endemic settings, including delayed diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and clinician unfamiliarity• The role of reference and collaborating laboratories (e.g., WHO-affiliated diagnostic networks) in standardizing and validating malaria diagnosis across settings • Impact of diagnostic accuracy and time-to-diagnosis on the treatment outcomes and drug resistance monitoring• Integration of surveillance data (clinical, entomological, environmental) into elimination and control programs in endemic regions• Cross-setting comparisons of case management pathways and health system capacity for malaria diagnosis• Co-infections and differential diagnosis challenges (e.g., malaria vs. other febrile illnesses) in both high- and low-prevalence contextsWe invite contributions from clinicians, microbiologists, epidemiologists, and public health researchers working across diverse geographic and healthcare settings, to support more equitable, accurate, and timely malaria diagnosis and surveillance worldwide. Topic editors: Adriana Calderaro, Eric Lyimo Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85878/malaria-diagnosis-across-endemic-and-non-endemic-settings-epidemiological-and-clinical-implications