Use of thermoscan in the district hospital setting

ABSTRACT

An assesment of the potential use of thermoscans as an adjunct or alternative to mercury thermometers was made at Salima District Hospital. It was found that although thermoscans are cheap and completely safe; they are small and easily lost. Their reliability over time in hot climates needs to be assessed as there was a high rate of false positives (27 percent) (many of the false positives were taken on a particularly hot day). False negatives were rare with the thermoscan (4 percent). More data is required before thermoscans can be advocated for routine use