Young Ugandan Engineer Wins Top Prize For Inventing A bloodless Malaria Detection Device

QUARTZ | The $33,000 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation has been awarded to a 24-year old Ugandan engineer for his invention of a bloodless malaria test. 

Before now, small blood samples taken from suspected patients in hospitals or pharmacies were used to test for malaria but with Matibabu, the device developed by Brian Gitta and his team, there is no need for pricking.

SCIENTIST: Brian Gitta

When a person is infected, the malaria parasite takes over a vacuole of the red blood cells and significantly remodels it. 

For Matibabu to work, it is clipped onto a person’s finger and using light and magnetism, a red beam of light scans the finger for changes in colour, shape and concentration of the red blood cells. A result is produced within a minute and sent to a mobile phone linked to the device.

Matibabu (Swahili for ‘treatment’) is low cost, reusable and because the procedure is non-invasive, it does not require specialist training.

Malaria alone costs Africa 1.3% of its GDP and most of the children under five years of age who die everyday because of malaria are in sub-Saharan Africa. The disease infects some 300 million to 600 million every year around the world, according to Unicef. But Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounts for 90% of the world’s 580,000 annual malaria deaths.

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