A newly-invented wristwatch draws blood from the wearer four times a day and tests it for malarial parasites. It’s designed for South African miners, but it could also be useful in South Asia, where malaria is rampant.
Gervan Lubbe has developed the watch which obtains blood samples with a microscopic needle that automatically penetrates the skin twice during the day and twice at nightThe watch takes blood samples with a microscopic needle that penetrates the skin four times a day. An alarm sounds if the parasite count is above 50, before the first symptoms appear… at that point an antidote in the form of tablets should be consumed and, within 48 hours, all traces of malaria are eliminated from the body. Malaria is the single biggest killer on the African continent, claiming close to three million lives a year. [Link]“If you wait until you get symptoms and a malaria diagnosis, you can be in bed for six months and have to take huge quantities of quinine, which can be dangerous…”[Link]
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p>It even has a remote data feed:
With the wristwatch, each miner will walk through a scanner, similar to a metal detector, and the watch’s radio frequency will transmit the wearer’s information to a central computer.
And, just like cleaning out the filter on a clothes dryer, you have to do something with all the blood. Anne Rice should be all over this:
… the watch’s alarm rings every 35 days to remove the small metal sieve and wash the old blood away. [Link]
India still suffers ~2 million malarial infections a year:
According to the World Health Organization, every year in India an estimated 2 million cases of malaria occur, with 1,000 deaths; and 95% of the population live in malaria-risk areas. [Link]
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be too excited about something clingy that drew blood at will. That’s called ‘marriage.’ A wrist-mounted glucose meter for diabetics pioneered a much less invasive way to cross the skin barrier:
The GlucoWatch is worn on the wrist and sits on top of a disposable gel disc containing the same enzyme used to monitor glucose levels in home monitors. Instead of testing blood directly, it draws glucose into the disc using a tiny electric current flowing between two terminals beneath the watch. Charged molecules move towards the electrodes as the current passes through the skin, dragging glucose molecules along with them. [Link]
And I could see an STD test on your wrist being useful in certain cities 
At the end of the day, the wristwatch may be too James Bond, and a lower-tech approach might work better:
The theory is simple: find fish which like eating mosquito larvae and put them in ponds, rivers and wells where mosquitoes lay their eggs… Introducing fish like guppies, he said, was one of the main reasons why the number of malaria cases each year in India was falling. [Link]
cool device manish… kinda like dr.acula (playing off the scrubs episode last night..what a brilliant medical show… as i’ve raved on and on about it)… but agree, the lower tech approach, esp in india and such would work better.. i don’t think those who are more susceptible to getting malaria could afford the ‘i vaaantoooo suck ya blood’ watch’… hehe.
Sounds cool. But will the price be affordable for its target market: Poor people who can’t afford two meals a day.
Is it my TV screen or has everyone on that show lost weight big time for this season?
M. Nam
well, that’s not the target market… it appears the target market isn’t poor people, but companies that employ poor people, in this instance south african miners who will have to step through a scanning device that will transmit their parasite count to a central computer.
lovely!
so basically it’s a productivity tool.
scrubs comment: hm.. they don’t look thin to me… zach still looks the same along with his hilarious croonies
Also it is well known scientific factoid that guppies tell a lot of stories and that drives the female anopheles into paroxysms of delight. Like desperate housewives addicted to their daily soaps, these mosquitas are lured into the gteedy maws of these spiel-spinning ichthyoids.
What? Zach Braff sings too?
But I agree with Trojan fan Chick Pea here. ER has got nothing on Scrubs. ER, is positively soapy now — its like watching Gilmore Girls with doctors. I mean who ever watches ER? 😉
Just spent an entire day in litigation, and now my brain is running on low, but here is a thought…..Do you think there are Americans who believe that Canada and South America just brings down the name of ‘America’? Cos I do believe the rest of Africa brings down my precious South Africa, we are just the superstars of Africa, just like the US is the superstar of the Americas! And before someone asks if I have been to the rest of Africa, the answer is yes I took a trip, in a jeep, from Cape to Cairo… Kudos to SA not only do we give the Indian cricket team a beating (most of the time) we are going to save them from the killer mosquitoes!!!!
I need coffee…
If anything, Canada improves the name of the Americas.
Appearantly to you guys the whiter the country, the better it looks in international comparisons.
I believe that Indian culture brings down Pakistan and Bangladesh as everyone thinks we are corrupted muslims like the ones in bollywood movies.
I declare flame war! Lets wait for the jingoists to crawl out of the woodwork now. 🙂
desidude: thanks for the trojan fan comment…too bad we lost the bowl..but was in the stands of the Rose Bowl happy as a Bean, painted face & all.. yes ER is horrible.. heck Greys Anatomy is worse…that is pure BS… and it’s a golden globe nominee?
Blah to the awards… sush: chuckled about the canada comment.. actually working with a surgical fellow from canada now… and told her that while bagpacking around europe, yanks put the canadian flag on their bags to increase their worth in the eyes of the europeans… so must agree on some part… she didn’t believe it… but tis true..tis true…
Oui, I ‘ave seen eet too. Eeet usually meens you parlay better francaise. And that you won’t order for freedom fries with your McBurger.
Surely with malaria prevention is better than…cure…
Things that make you go hmmmm….