Rapid test kit for malaria delivers results in 30 minutes
A team of scientists from
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore)
has developed a test kit for malaria that delivers results in 30 minutes. The kit could facilitate the diagnosis of malaria in the field, as the equipment needed is anticipated to be lightweight, easy-to-use, and able to detect the disease in its early stages.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), an estimated 229 million people suffered from malaria in 2019. The disease, transmitted by mosquitoes, caused the deaths of 409,000 people across 87 mainly developing countries.
Efforts to treat and control malaria in developing countries and rural areas are hindered by high cost and the lack of infrastructure. Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for malaria are unable to detect infections during the early stages of the disease, but can give false positive or negative results. They also do not determine the severity of the infection.
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Fashionable masks may look good - but how can you tell if they protect against COVID-19? Toggle share menu
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Fashionable masks may look good - but how can you tell if they protect against COVID-19?
People wearing protective face masks while crossing a road on May 24, 2021, during Phase 2 (Heightened Alert). (File photo: Marcus Mark Ramos)
28 May 2021 06:49PM) Share this content
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SINGAPORE: For those who worry about how they look, a reusable cloth mask that comes with a unique pattern or a branding logo offers more potential than a plain, disposable alternative.
But it can be more difficult to determine whether a reusable mask picked up in a clothes shop or online can protect the user, compared with a single-use mask that has typically passed certain certifications to be sold.
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Boxes of face masks on sale in Singapore. (File photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
19 May 2021 11:09PM) Share this content
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SINGAPORE: Singapore updated its guidance for the use of masks on Tuesday (May 18) on the back of rising COVID-19 infections in the community.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) is advising that members of the public use masks with better protection, such as those with better filtration efficiency, to mitigate the higher risk of infection.
This is because the recent COVID-19 clusters “suggest a higher level of transmission, likely attributed to new virus variants”, the ministry said.
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IMAGE: NTU LKCMedicine Asst Prof Sanjay Chotirmall and his team believe that their proposed concept of understanding infections applies to all forms of infection, and could potentially offer fresh ways of. view more
Credit: NTU Singapore
Traditionally, an infection is thought to happen when microbes - bacteria, fungi, or viruses - enter and multiply in the body, and its severity is associated with how prevalent the microbes are in the body.
Now, an international research team led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has proposed a new way of understanding infections. Their study of close to 400 respiratory samples from patients with bronchiectasis, a chronic lung condition, has shown that microbes in the body exist as a network, and that an infection s severity could be a result of interactions between these microbes.