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Overprescription of antimicrobials is accepted as a major factor in increased antimicrobial resistance. In Africa and Asia, febrile illness is a very common reason for seeking healthcare, and a diagnosis of malaria often leads to dispensing of antimalarial drugs. The development of rapid malaria testing modalities was intended to minimize unnecessary antimalarial therapy, with the goal of retarding resistance. This testing has had its desired effect in many locales. To see if the use and results of rapid malaria testing might have any unintended deleterious effect on the dispensing of other antimicrobials, investigators in the ACT Consortium designed nine studies of malaria diagnosis and therapy involving more than 522,000 patients seen bet…