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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : April 22, 2015 2:42 PM IST
Scientists for long now have tried to develop methods for quick diagnosis and treatment of diseases like malaria. Diagnosis of malaria is usually done by a blood test and a few tests even diagnose the disease in less than 10 minutes. To ease the process of diagnosis, Australian scientists have now designed a method which detects the diseases by analysing the patient's breath.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) ran tests on volunteers by infecting them with malaria under controlled circumstances, Efe news agency reported.Higher levels of four sulphuric compounds were detected in direct correlation with the severity of the infection. Read everything you need to know about diagnosis of malaria!
The chemicals are not detectable by the human nose, but with the proper instruments, the disease can be diagnosed earlier than with the standard blood examination method, CSIRO explained in a statement. What is exciting is that the increase in these chemicals were present at very early stages of infection, when many other methods would have been unable to detect the parasite in the body of people infected with malaria, CSIRO research group leader Stephen Trowell said. Here are the top 10 facts you should know about malaria!
Researchers are confident that this discovery will help develop a fast and economical system of malaria detection. We are also working with colleagues to develop very specific, sensitive and cheap biosensors that could be used in the clinic and the field to test breath for malaria, Trowell added. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), around 200 million cases of malaria and half a million malaria deaths were recorded in 2013.
Source: IANS
Image source: Getty Images
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