A NEW rapid dipstick method to detect the presence of the malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, could prove a boon to diagnosticians. The test, which has a sensitivity as high as 95 to 100 per cent, has been successfully tried in Kenya and the US (The Lancet, Vol 343, No 8897). It is a simple and easy test that requires very little blood and, to its advantage, no equipment or electricity. The time taken to analyse a batch of 10 specimens is a mere 30 minutes.