Abstract: Objective  To analyze the result of the national technique competition for diagnosis of parasitic diseases in 2012, so as to understand the capability of detection on Plasmodium parasites among professionals from institutes for disease control and prevention at different levels.  Methods  Four professionals from institution were selected as contestants （age≤45 and at least two contestants from county-level institution）. The content of the competition included making thick and thin blood slides of Plasmodium（3 slides in 30 min, 10 scores as full marks and 6 as passing score） and identification of species and number with microscopy（5 slides, 8 min per slide, 30 scores as full marks and 18 as passing score）. All contestants were grouped by gender, age, professional title, level of institution, classification according to malaria endemicity, geographical location and economic developement of the province. Their scores were statistically analyzed by SPSS 16.0 software.  Results  The average score of blood smear making test in 120 contestants from 30 provinces was 8.7, the highest was 10 and the lowest was 5.8, 118（98.3%） contestants passed the test. The average score of blood smear reading was 16.0, the highest was 29 and the lowest was 0, 52（43.3%） contestants passed the test. There were no significant differences for the scores among genders, ages（≤30, 31-40, >40）, professional titles （junior, intermediate and senior）, institution levels （provincial, municipal or county level）（P>0.05）. However, there was a significant difference among provinces with different malaria endemicity, geographical location and development status （P<0.05）. For the blood slide-making and film-reading, scores of contestants from malaria endemic provinces including Class Ⅰ（9.29±0.41，18.17±6.42）, Class Ⅱ （8.92±0.79， 18.31±6.94） and Class Ⅲ （8.61±0.89, 15.63±7.52） were higher than those from non-endemic provinces （7.95±1.00， 10.19±7.01）（P<0.01）. Scores of contestants from southern provinces（9.16±0.61， 18.82±6.78） were significantly higher than that from northern ones（8.30±0.99， 13.23±7.45）（P<0.01）. The film-reading scores were significantly higher in those from eastern provinces（18.20±6.88） than those from western（13.39±7.60） （P<0.05), while no significant difference was found in blood slide-making （P>0.05）.  Conclusion  The capability of malaria parasite detection is imbalanced.

Key words: Parasitic disease, Technique competition, Plasmodium, Pathogen detection, Capacity building