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“We really
envision this working just like a breathalyzer test when you get
pulled over for drunk driving,” said Dr. Audrey Odom, an
assistant professor of pediatrics and molecular biology at
Washington University in St. Louis.
The device, still in development, would be comparable in cost or
less expensive than current diagnostic tools such as a Malaria
Rapid Diagnosis Test and wouldn’t require blood samples or
trained personnel to use, according to Odom.
The work began in the lab where Odom and her colleagues
discovered the parasite produces aromatic organic compounds
called terpenes that give off a scent that attracts mosquito’s.
“Those type of compounds when they are in the blood can actually
get into the lungs and out in the gas that you exhale,” she
said.
The research then moved on to a pilot study in Malawi where the
scientists were able to detect and diagnose malaria with 100
percent accuracy in the exhaled breath of children. A second
study is scheduled for next fall.
Malaria kills an estimated half a million people every year,
most of those children under the age of 5 in Sub Saharan Africa,
according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
“We are giving almost 300 million doses of malaria treatment
every year and we don’t even know if we are giving them to the
right people,” said Odom, adding that over use of antimalarials
increases the risk of drug resistance.
“We want to judiciously use antimicrobial and antimalarials only
on the people that really need them. So I think a low cost
diagnostic test that you could disseminate more widely would
allow us to preserve our antimalarials only for the children who
need them which would let them work longer.”
Similar research into breathlyzer-type diagnostic tools is
underway for diseases such tuberculosis and lung cancer.
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