SMART (Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology) has developed a new way of detecting malaria in infected patients: magnets.
Known as the MRR (magnetic resonance relaxometry), this procedure, which is similar to MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), is a departure from the conventional tests, which involve human interaction. The process normally entails staining the blood sample with a dye to determine the presence of nuclei in the red blood cells. If such presence is confirmed, the patient is positive with malaria.
Although this method has been used for many years, the research team considers this as vulnerable to errors, including contamination and misinterpretation.
With MRR, the results rely only on the biological or naturally occurring markers, thereby producing more accurate results. It detects the presence of hemozoin, a waste product of the parasite that is actually a converted iron from a broken-down hemoglobin. The process, including the analysis, takes only a few minutes.
If deployed commercially, the new system makes malaria testing more convenient. The prototype can be mounted on any desk. The team is also working on a much smaller version similar to the standard sizes of mobile tablets. The cost is also significantly lower.
Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease. It is parasitic, which means the mosquitoes pass on Plasmodium parasites by biting humans. There are many different subspecies of the parasite, with Plasmodium falciparum considered the deadliest.
Around 50% of the world's population is vulnerable to malaria. Despite the awareness campaigns and research efforts of the World Health Organization, more than 200 million new cases had been diagnosed in 2012. While the mortality rate is dropping, many still die from the disease with Africa being the worst hit. The region posted 90% malaria deaths in 2012, killing more than 400,000 children under 5 years old. Early detection and treatment remains to be the most effective approach.