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The besT way To combaT malaria,
which causes more than 400,000 deaths
every year, is through rapid and accurate
diagnosis, treatment and containment.
But in Uganda, where malaria is one of
the leading causes of death, a good diag-
nosis is hard to come by. Blood tests are
time- consuming and require trained lab
technicians—hard to find in the small
clinics used by most of the population.
After being misdiagnosed for the third
time, software engineer Brian Gitta de-
cided to do something about it. “It was
such a waste of time, going to the clinic,
waiting in line. I knew there had to be a
better way.” For the past six years, the
27-year-old has worked with doctors, sci-
entists and fellow software engineers—all
of whom have had their own brushes with
the disease—to develop a simple method
to test for malaria without a blood sam-
ple, a microscope or a trained technician.
All that’s needed is their new inven-
tion, a portable shoebox- size device they
call a matiscope (from the Swahili word
for treatment) and a smartphone. Patients
with malaria- like symptoms, including
high fever, chills or headaches, can place
a finger in the device cradle, which uses
magnets and a beam of red light to de-
tect changes in blood cells caused by the
malaria parasite. The readings are ana-
lyzed by the smartphone, diagnosed and,
if positive, can be uploaded to a nation-
wide grid so that national health authori-
ties can monitor for outbreaks. It’s reus-
able and provides results in two minutes.
“This is a game changer,” says Dr. Jimmy
Opigo, the manager for Uganda’s National
Malaria Control Program. Not only does
an accurate diagnosis mean appropri-
ate medical prescriptions, thus avoiding
overmedication that can lead to treat-
ment resistance, the real-time outbreak-
monitoring aspect could pave the way for
targeted prevention campaigns. “This
system could be a key part of ending ma-
laria worldwide,” Opigo says. “I am proud
it is coming from one of our own.”
Development wasn’t easy, says Gitta,
a self- described workaholic who gradu-
ated from Uganda’s Makerere University
with a degree in computer science. But
despite early setbacks, the team kept pur-
suing the idea. Now on its fifth iteration,
the machine is in clinical trials in Uganda
and Angola, and is showing results on
par with the blood- sample and micro-
scope method. Gitta expects to reach
market within the next three years. “If I
had known how difficult this would be,
I’m not sure I would have started down
this path,” he says. But “it’s O.K. to fail,
as long as you keep pushing through to
your idea.” Brian Gitta
Revolutionizing the fight
against malaria
By Aryn Baker