A portable device has been developed that diagnoses infectious diseases
Last reviewed: 22.11.2021
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It is well known how rapidly infectious diseases can spread , and therefore, there must exist and be as accessible as possible operative ways of detecting infections in the field, which is critical in the fight against epidemics. Unfortunately, today's testing methods require hours, and sometimes days, and also often special, very expensive and completely non-mobile equipment. But there is a hope that soon the situation will radically change.
Jane Woo, a member of the Department of Theory of Computers and Systems and Electrical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, USA, and her colleagues developed a portable device that can be used "in the field" to detect infectious diseases and pathogens.
The device on the shoulder of any physician, you can apply it anywhere and under any circumstances. All you need is a drop of blood, placed on a microchip inside the device.
The microchip has been pretreated with antigens specific for the disease. (Again, as in the case of a glucometer converted to the definition of viral DNA, well, if you know what disease you are looking for, and if a person just coughs and sneezes - what antigen to take, what to look for, how many microchips you need to try, what will be the price of blind selection variants?) Infection, which got into the blood of the experimental (or even toxin), causes an immune response of the body, which is accompanied by the production of specific antibodies. Next, it is necessary to place the blood already containing the immune system-produced antibodies on the microchip with the antigen, and in case of coincidence (antigen / antibody) the device will inform the doctor that yes, the person is infected (and the type of the disease corresponds to the type of antigen used on the microchip). The whole process takes several minutes. (This is obvious if there is only one option, but how long will the analysis take if the doctor does not know what he is looking for?)
To date, the device has been successfully used to detect tuberculosis in humans and animals, as well as Yonis disease (a specific type of tuberculosis) in cattle.
The spread of the disease in the United States of Yonis annually takes 200 million from farmers. Since there is still no practically applicable treatment, the possibility of early diagnosis is a critical factor in controlling the spread of the disease on farms, which in turn will help the peasants save livestock ).
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