Basic Principles for Malaria Microscopist Quality Assurance

Blood smear examination remains a golden standard for malaria diagnostic in Indonesia. Even though training courses have been conducted, the qualities of the malaria microscopy examination results in several endemic areas were not yet satisfying. Therefore a Quality Assurance (QA) program is needed to improve and maintain the performace of malaria microscopist to get more acurate and standardized results of blood smear examination. The QA of malaria microscopist, consist of several components of activities such as selection process, training, asessment, supervision, cross check mechanism, suplies of equipment and reagens, and favorable environment as well as appropriate workload. The development of malaria microscopy QA program and steps of the activityies in Indonesia will be discussed in this paper. Keywords: Quality assurance, microscopist, malaria