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Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Two Bolivian university students have created a chip for microscopes that automatically detects tuberculosis in sputum samples, a procedure that in Bolivia and other developing countries is normally done with not always accurate bacilloscopy.

Rodrigo Loza, 22, and Khalil Nallar, 21, students of biomedicine and mechatronics, respectively, at the Bolivian Catholic University, consider the device an alternative to the “old and fairly unreliable methods” used to diagnose the illness.

“We propose an inexpensive device, automatic (with no need for manual operation) and 100 percent reliable,” Loza told EFE.

Tuberculosis is one of the biggest killers in the world with 1.3 million victims a year, and with its highest mortality rates in the poor and developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.