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From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report. |
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December 1 marked World Aids Day. |
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People around the world Join together to celebrate progress in fighting acquired immune deficiency syndrome, |
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better known as AIDS. |
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A new device aims to make identification of AIDS easier and to lower the cost of testing in developing countries. |
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The device is used to count a disease-fighting white blood cells called the CD4 cell. |
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The human immunodeficiency virus -- |
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HIV attacks and destroys CD4 cells making patients unable to fight off infection. |
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Doctors often suggest patients use antiretroviral drugs to help strengthen the body's natural defences for fighting disease. |
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A CD4 cell count can help doctors decide if the drug treatment is necessary or not. |
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The count requires a blood sample and a laboratory equipped to study the cells. |
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This can be difficult to do in some African nations where many people have AIDS but where testing laboratories are in short supply. |
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Rashid Bashir heads the bioengineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |
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He and his team have developed the new device which they call "lab on a chip". |
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It is a 3-centimeter-by-4-centimeter cartridge with all the equipment and chemicals needed to perform a CD4 cell count. |
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"The promise is to bring the lab to the patient rather than the patient to the lab," he said. |
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The device uses just a drop of blood. |
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It separates the white cells from the red cells which carry oxygen. |
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It then counts the CD4 cells immediately. |
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Rashid Bashir has a financial interest in a business called Daktari Diagnostics. |
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The company is working to market the "lab on a chip" and develop a hand-held device to read the results. |
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Xuanhong Cheng is a bioengineering professor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. |
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She is not involved in Mr Bashir's research, |
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but she says combining processing and identification in one chip is more helpful than other CD4 counters in development. |
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"A lot of people just look at the detection side. |
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But if the sample has to be processed using very complicated methods, |
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then it's still not quite applicable in resource-limited settings," she said. |
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Ms Cheng says it will be at least a few years before any of those devices is available on the market. |
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She is also working on developing a CD4 counter. |
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"The way that we make a device in a lab is very different from industrial manufacturing processes. |
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So, the process is not as straightforward as some people would think," she said. |
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There is an urgent need for better CD4 tests, and she says she is happy about the competition. |
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And that's the Health Report from VOA Learning English. |
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I'm Milagros Ardin. |
