Diagnosing Malaria in Five Seconds. Yeah, you read that right.
It is estimated that almost 438,000 people died from Malaria in 2015. Most of this total is in Sub-Saharan Africa. There have been many approaches to solving this problem, but John Lewandowski, a PhD student in mechanical engineering at MIT believes quick diagnosis is critical. That is why he created the device called RAM (Rapid Assessment of Malaria) that can detect malaria in five seconds from a drop of blood.
Traditionally, Malaria is diagnosed either by microscopy or by diagnostic tests. The RAM device is quicker and cheaper than any other diagnosis right now. It is made from cheap materials and only costs $120. It is a 4×4 box that uses magnetic and laser technology. Even better is that is battery operated. The basic idea behind the device is that malaria parasites create magnetic iron crystals in human blood. Thus, the magnets in the device attract the magnetic crystals and the lasers are used to identify patterns in the crystals. It is a very simple technology.
The team has already tested the device in India and it has shown accuracy up to 97%. The potential is immense as current techniques take too long, are too expensive or are not accurate enough. This device is fast, accurate, and cheap. It can be the key to solving the malaria problem in Sub-Saharan Africa.