Table 2.

Comparison of costs of survey-based metrics

Cost	Measures of infection			Measures of exposure
	RDTa	Microscopya	PCRa	Serologyb
Cost per sample	$1.50	$0.25	$2.00	$0.5
Detection limit	100 to 200 p/μL	4 to 100 p/μL	<4 p/μL (individual PCR); 100 p/μL (pooled PCR)	n/a
Point-of-care test?	Yes	Yes, if basic laboratory services are available	No	n/a
Capital equipment required	None	Microscope	PCR machine, pipettes, gel tanks.	Microplate reader
Training and rigour	Minimal	Moderate	Very extensive	Extensive
Turnaround time per sample	15 minutes	30 minutes	2 days	3 days
Turnaround time for 1000 samples	n/a	Weeks	Typically a week for individual PCR and days for pooled PCR, however the turnaround time depends on staff costs and the type of PCR conducted.	Week

^aHsiang et al., 2012;

^bUnpublished data.