Blood-borne parasites cause significant morbidity worldwide often leading to chronic illness malnutrition and in some cases mortality. The major parasistic diseases that are catorgorised as blood-borne include: African Trypanosomiasis, Babesiosis, Chagas disease (American Trypanosomiasis), Leishmaniasis, Malaria, Filariasis and Toxoplasmosis. Transmission to the host can vary, the most common mode of infection is through insect bites, and less common modes include consumption of contaminated food, through blood product transfusion and organ transplantation. Traditionally, the diagnosis of blood borne parasites has largely relied on microscopy; still primarily adopted by many laboratories worldwide. However, microscopy is time consuming, laborious and requires a trained microscopist to identify the infecting species correctly. The introduction of rapid serological tests such as rapid antigen detection assay’s (RDT’s) and molecular based approaches such as nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs), have provided laboratories with more sensitive and rapid assays for detection when compared to traditional methods. Emerging genomic approaches such as next generation sequencing (NGS) are expected to provide future assay development opportunities for the diagnosis and management of these infections.