Introduction : Malaria affects 300-500 million people world-wide, and claims thelives of about 1.5 million, every year. Most of those victims are children under fiveand pregnant women. Diagnosis of the disease has traditionally relied on the directvisualization of parasites on stained thick and thin blood smears, under the lightmicroscope. This is the current gold standard for malaria diagnosis, which is givingrise to increasing dissatisfaction with its limitations: subjectivity, excessivedependence on the personal skills of the microscopist, lack of sensitivity to mixedinfections, and limited suitability to automation and the processing of large numbersof samples. Rapid antigen dip-stick tests, or immuno-chromatographic tests, andthe semi-nested, multiplex PCR, promised to overcome the limitations of traditionallight microscopy. Subjects & Methods : The three techniques were employed for diagnosis ofmalaria on a patient population (n = 60) recruited from Taif, Saudi Arabia, an areaknown for limited, but steady presence of malaria.Results & Discussion : The clinical presentations of those patients were nonspecific,except for two children who presented with a picture of cerebral malaria.Lower hemoglobin and platelet levels showed a positive association with malaria.The results were compared for specificity and sensitivity, and showed that the rapidimmuno-chromatographic test performed exactly as the traditional smears (22positive vs. 38 negative cases), while the PCR showed much higher sensitivity,compared with light microscopy (27 positive vs. 33 negative cases -100 % vs. 81.5%), with no loss in specificity. Recommendation : The PCR is a more sensitive technique for diagnosis of malaria,while its specificity is equal to that of the traditional blood smear, and should bemade the reference diagnostic standard for malaria.