Researchers at Monash University and the University of Melbourne have found a new tool for fighting off malaria: military technology.
A Focal Plane Array (FPA), a detector used in Javelin missiles for heat-seeking, was used to find the first stages of malaria in a blood sample, according to CNET. By being connected to an infrared imaging microscope, the detector was able to transmit the infrared signals of the fatty acids in the disease.
The Javelin missile launcher was introduced into the U.S. military in 1996, and allowed soldiers to fire them from their shoulders or from atop of vehicles. Having first been widely used in Operation Iraqi Freedom in March and April 2003, the launcher is currently being used in Afghanistan.
Thanks to the infrared signature from the parasites' fatty acids, the researchers were able to find the parasites at an earlier stage, and also managed to determine the number of parasites in a smear of blood, ScienceDaily reported.
Bayden Wood, associate professor from Monash University and lead researcher of the study, said a test that can detect malaria at its early stages is needed to bring down death and the overuse of antimalarial medicine.
"There are some excellent tests that diagnose malaria. However, the sensitivity is limited and the best methods require hours of input from skilled microscopists, and that's a problem in developing countries where malaria is most prevalent," Wood said.
Additional benefits of the new test include providing an automatic diagnosis within four minutes, finding the parasite in a single blood cell, and not needing a specialist technician, ScienceDaily reported.
Malaria is caused by the malaria parasite and kills 1.2 million people each year. While current tests look in blood samples to find the parasite, it can be hard to find in the early stages of infection, resulting in the disease only being spotted when the parasites have grown and spread throughout the body.
The disease is also one of the top three causes of death among children around the world, CNET reported. Leann Tilley, professor from the University of Melbourne and co-researcher in the study, said in many countries, malaria is only treated in people who show signs of the disease.
"But the problem with this approach is that some people don't have typical flu-like symptoms associated with malaria, and this means a reservoir of parasites persists that can reemerge and spread very quickly within a community," Tilley said.
Wood said the test gives doctors the chance to stop the disease before it can kill the patient, CNET reported.
"We believe this sets the gold standard for malaria testing," he said.
The research team now looks to use hospitals and clinics in Thailand to test out the new malaria detection method, and will work with a researcher from a university in the country on the tests. The study was recently published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
