The new tool could help save hundreds of thousands of lives annually.
Malaria is usually detected by a blood test, but scientists have devised a method using a device that shines a beam of harmless infrared light on a person’s ear or finger for between five and 10 seconds. The tool then collects an infrared signature that is processed by a computer algorithm.
Dr Maggy Lord, the international team leader from UQ’s School of Biological Sciences, said the technology would revolutionise how malaria is fought globally.
“Currently it’s incredibly challenging to test large groups of people, such as the population of a village or town. You have to take blood from everyone and mix it with a reagent to get a result,” she said. “With this tool, we can find out very quickly whether a whole village or town is suffering from, or carrying, malaria."
The device can be operated using a smartphone, so it is accessible to a wide range of the global population and the...