24 August 2019 | New Scientist | 47You have a bigger vision for how it can be
used, though, right?
Yes. The device also collects data in real time,
and we can use this to look at the geographical
distribution and evolution of malaria cases.
This data is passed on to organisations
involved in malaria control programmes.
We’re also looking at letting pharmaceutical
companies use the data so they can provide
the right medications to the communities
that need it most.Have you come across any unexpected
challenges during development?
When we did some test cases, a mother came
in to have a diagnosis for her child who had
a high fever. Her kid was malaria negative.
The mother wasn’t convinced, so she went
next door and had the blood drawn as well.
This made us understand that we also have
to change the way that people think about
new technologies.You’re 27, but you have already created this
potentially game-changing technology.
What will you do next?
I want to grow the company in order to close
the gaps between communities and their
rightful access to healthcare. I would like to
build more technologies that offer better
diagnoses. This definitely won’t be the last
device we develop. ❚Helen Thomson is a consultant for New Scientist and
author of Unthinkable: An extraordinary journey
through the world’s strangest brainsunderstanding of how malaria affects the
body. We needed to understand the mechanics
of malaria, and we needed to understand a lot
of things in microbiology and parasitology.Tell us more about the problems with the
current diagnostic tests.
Doctors use a blood test and it takes time
to get a diagnosis. People can be queuing
for hours. It takes a skilled doctor to do the
analysis and they can be sitting there all day
staring down a microscope. I wanted to figure
out how we can make that process easier,
how we can take the patients’ pain away and
how to do it quickly. It isn’t just the diagnosis:
while people are queuing, they aren’t going
to school, they aren’t going to work, they
aren’t earning money.What was your solution?
We did lots of research and found that
when a person is infected with malaria, the
parasite that causes the disease changes
the physical and chemical composition of
their blood cells. It also creates a crystal-like
structure in the bloodstream. Our solution
uses the principles of light scattering and
magnetism to map out the differences
between malaria-infected and normal blood
cells. We use this information together with
a light beam that is shone onto the finger to
detect whether malaria is in the blood or not.Did you have an “aha” moment when you
figured it all out?
Our device had to go through lots of iterations.
The first few prototypes failed completely.
There were lots of things that interfered with
the light beam, like the temperature of the
skin, which changes when you have a fever.
There was never really an “aha” moment,
more like constant research that gradually
moved towards the solution. Once we got
there, we started a company called Matibabu,
which means “treatment” in Swahili. We are
now starting a clinical trial and looking at
improving consistency. We’re testing it on
500 people and then, if the outcomes are good,
we will start a trial of 10,000 people, so that
we can get verification before we roll it out.How expensive will your approach be
compared with standard blood tests?
We are still working out the costs, but our
plan was always for it to be cheaper than a
microscope. And in terms of value for the
community and the time it takes to get a
diagnosis, its worth is more than just the
cost of the test itself.A prototype of the
diagnostic tool that
could help people get
treatment more easilyBrian Gitta is co-founder with Joshua
Businge Muleesi, Josiah Kavuma and
Simon Lubambo of Matibabu, a
Uganda-based company that aims
to develop new technology to improve
community health. He is a 2019
recipient of the Rolex Awards for
Enterprise, which recognise
entrepreneurs whose work
addresses major global challenges“ While people wait for a
malaria diagnosis, they
aren’t going to school,
they aren’t going to work”
ALL PHOTOS: ROLEX/JOAN BARDELETTI