"Malaria Monitor" wristwatch
By Evan Blass 
posted January 18th 2006 5:00PM
posted January 18th 2006 5:00PM
We have more than a few friends
that fell under the spell of the Dark Continent and have spent considerable portions of their adult lives living and
working in Africa. Since our friends are of the vain type and think that the harsh African sun makes for perfect
year-round tanning, several of them refuse to take the anti-malarial medication which keeps skin pigmentation from
darkening. Not surprisingly, one of our vainer friends has already contracted malaria three times, so when she recovers
from the latest bout we are going to try and save her from future suffering by rushing her one of inventor Gervan
Lubbe's "Malaria Monitor" wristwatches. This clever device pricks the user's wrist four times-a-day and
analyzes his/her blood for traces of malaria, flashing a brightly-colored mosquito when parasite levels exceed a
certain threshold. Apparently the Malaria Monitor can detect an infection before symptoms manifest themselves, making
the disease much easier to treat and saving the patient as much as six months of bed rest (interspersed by frequent
trips to the toilet or hole in the ground). Lubbe claims that several African governments as well as the World Health
Organization and some mining companies have expressed interest in the $280 device, with the latter group able to set up
scanners that would detect each worker's watch-reported malarial status as he/she emerged from the mine.
The watch on the company's page says it can detect malaria with as "little" as 2% of RBCs infected. thats actually a pretty high infection. you can get sick with just 0.1% of your cells infected. by the time you hit 2%, you'll know it. I wonder how specific it is for plasmodium vs other parasite species too.
I would be interested in hearing the answer to coment #2 as I am diabetic and wonder it this could replace the testing I do 4 to 6 times a day? Seems like it could work.
Would one feel these pricks?
Would those needle holes actually become vectors for infections in these generally less hygiene environments?
would it be possible to expand this to provide full bloodwork over, say, a bluetooth connection?
This actually sounds useful. Anti-malaria meds make you hallucinate, so some people (including my roommate, who got malaria in Belize 2 years ago because the malaria meds made her sleepwalk) stop taking them. This would be a good alternative.