Vaccines that spoil in tropical heat. Diagnostic tests that don’t
provide results in time to treat the sick. Patients who spread disease
because it goes undetected. Such are the frustrations that aid workers
face in developing countries. Perhaps if they were armed with technologies
such as these, they might save more of the 10.6 million children who die
yearly from preventable or treatable illnesses.
An Unusual Timepiece
First developed to keep African miners healthy (and
working), the Gervans Trading Malaria Monitor automatically pricks the
skin four times a day to test the blood for malaria parasites. The device,
which doubles as a watch, announces the parasite’s presence with
an alarm and a flashing picture of a mosquito. Three antibiotic pills
within 48 hours of diagnosis can cure a patient before he feels ill. Companies,
governments and aid organizations in more than 40 countries have placed
more than 1.5 million orders.
A Painless Vaccine
At 1,500 miles per hour, PowderMed’s Particle Mediated Epidermal
Delivery (PMED) gene gun fires microscopic vaccine particles just far
enough beneath the skin to reach immunity-producing cells, but just short
of nerve endings, thus rendering the shot painless. Because PMED hits
its target exactly, rather than overreaching like traditional shots, it
administers one-thousandth the dose of needle injections. And because
PMED vaccines are powders, they require no refrigeration and have extended
shelf lives. Many vaccines, including those for influenza and genital
herpes, are in Phase I clinical trials.
A Speedy Diagnosis
The Diagnostic Development Unit at the University
of Cambridge has joined in the fight against trachoma, a chronic eye infection
that has blinded approximately 6 million people worldwide. Its new eye
swab test has a positive predictive power of 97.3% (compared with 43.6%
for current visual inspection methods) and yields a diagnosis in half
an hour. If caught in time, trachoma can be treated with one dose of antibiotics.
A Breath of Protection
To combat measles, which kills half a million people
(primarily children) each year, engineering research-and-development firm
Creare Inc. of Hanover, N.H., and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention are testing a new intranasal vaccine-delivery device. The needle-free
method is painless, fits in a child’s nose and would speed mass
vaccination campaigns.
A Pocket-Size Lab Test
Fifteen minutes is all it takes for a miniaturized
laboratory on a card (called the Optolab Card) to
diagnose tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. The Ikerlan Technological
Research Centre in Gipuzkoa, Spain, is developing the portable device,
which analyzes each disease’s DNA chain to expedite diagnosis—and
treatment. 
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