Monday, April 06, 2009

Students from "Engineering Entrepreneur" Program Develop Low-Cost TB Test


While other students in the program do projects related to things like cell phones or video games, these three worked in a neglected area - simple, low cost tests that can be administered by untrained personnel to diagnose poor, rural people.

They designed a TB Test where you just need to put someone's spit under the microscope part, and then the attached computer screen will show white dots if there are any TB bacteria present.

It seems like a simple invention, but almost 2 million people die of TB a year - mostly not from lack of medicine, but from lack of timely diagnosis.

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