A ‘just-add-water’ kit to make instant drugs and vaccines could fix health care access in rural areas
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Soon, getting medical assistance to rural areas—where half of the world’s population still lives—won’t be hindered by power outages anymore.
In developing countries (where the majority of the world’s rural residents live), infrastructure is weak, there is a dearth of qualified medical personnel, and resources like electricity are low or sporadically available. As a result, medical supplies often don’t reach remote areas, or if they do, there’s often no functioning refrigerator to store them in. One solution would be to find a cheap way to produce those supplies on the spot.
A team of researchers at University of Toronto and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering are working on just that. They are pioneering a technology that could allow people with minimal training to produce a broad range of medication, including diagnostic tools, vaccines, and drugs, anywhere in the world.
Source: Quartz (link opens in a new window)
- Categories
- Health Care
