Quinine giving a further half dose. No injectable preparation of quinine is licensed in the US; quinidine is used instead. Quinine is a flavor component of tonic water and bitter lemon drink mixers. On the soda gun behind many bars, tonic water is designated by the letter "Q" representing quinine. According to tradition, the bitter taste of anti-malarial quinine tonic led British colonials in India to mix it with gin, thus creating the iconic gin and tonic cocktail, which is still popular today. Nowadays, the amount of quinine in tonic is much lower and drinking it against malaria is useless. Quinine
Malaria common suggest high levels of over diagnosis due to insufficient or inaccurate laboratory testing. Malaria is usually confirmed by the microscopic examination of blood films or by antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests (RDT). In some areas, RDTs need to be able to distinguish whether the malaria symptoms are caused by "Plasmodium falciparum" or by other species of parasites since treatment strategies could differ for non-"P. falciparum" infections. Microscopy is the most commonly used method to detect the malarial parasite—about 165 million blood films were examined for malaria in 2010. Despite its widespread usage, diagnosis by microscopy suffers from two main drawbacks: