It’s come a time when we need all the help we can get seeing as diseases seem to be taking over humanity. Well if we go back only 2 years ago, we can look into this low cost device that detects malaria in one minute.

Matibabu: The Device That Detects Malaria In One Minute

Brian Gitta, a Ugandan Software Engineer created the device, Dubbed Matibabu which works in conjunction with a mobile phone. The low-cost, reusable device clips onto a patient’s finger and gives results within one minute. Compared to 30 minutes with current tests this is quite the step up. It sends all the results to the phone that they link to the device.

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How it Works

A beam of red light shone through the user’s finger detects changes in the shape, color and concentration of red blood cells. (All of which are affected by malaria.) Team member Shafik Sekitto notes that those with Malaria have parasites in their blood that produce waste. The important part is one type is magnetic. The magnet in Matibabu detects this anomaly and sends the results to a mobile device.

Matibabu is currently undergoing testing in partnership with a national hospital in Uganda. They are even sourcing suppliers for the sensitive magnetic and laser components they need to scale up production.

Currently they have an app and dashboard that collects data to better understand malaria trends. The visual perception of this data helps them run prediction algorithms on the data to deduce geographically customized malaria trends.