Mobile Phone Keeps Tabs on Malaria

The eye imaging also allows the system to determine the stage of the disease by measuring blood flow to the brain. Hemozoin blocks blood vessels and therefore slows the flow as greater amounts of it are released from the parasite. Monitoring blood flow in the brain is critical to checking the patient for cerebral malaria.

“Many devices are focused on diagnosis but not on monitoring the severity of the disease,” biomedical engineer Dr. Alberto Bilenca explained. “Sometimes in villages of Africa, you have to decide whether it is cost-effective to transport a child to the hospital, which is often a great distance away. We hope our device will help determine which patients need hospitalization, because it's not possible to bring everyone who has malaria to the hospital.”

Another advantage of the device is that the images can be telecommunicated immediately to laboratories. Researchers in Africa who lack sophisticated laboratory facilities depend on this method of data transmission.

Bilenca said the concept of detecting malaria through monitoring hemozoin was known for 30 years. “What's new is that we are doing it with cell phones.” For more information: biomed@bgu.ac.il, +972-8-647-9627.