A Medical Device Can Find Malaria Infections

A Medical Device Can Find Malaria Infections Lyrics

Song A Medical Device Can Find Malaria Infections
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Album VOA慢速英语:健康报道
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[00:00.10] From VOA Learning English,
[00:01.69] this is the Health Report.
[00:04.18] Researchers have developed a medical device
[00:07.38] which they say can find malaria infections in the human body.
[00:13.12] The laser beam scanner is the first device
[00:17.05] that can find the sometimes deadly disease
[00:20.36] without going inside the body.
[00:23.34] The test is painless, does not need blood from a person,
[00:27.51] and appears to be right every time it is done.
[00:31.37] At the present time,
[00:33.14] a trained medical worker needs costly equipment,
[00:37.52] a person's blood and a lot of time to know
[00:41.57] if a person has been infected with malaria.
[00:44.76] Trained workers, equipment and time
[00:47.71] are not always available in poor parts of the world.
[00:52.11] The newly developed device only needs a person
[00:56.04] to place a finger on a laser device.
[00:59.60] Doctor Dmitri Lopotko is a researcher
[01:03.51] at the department of biochemistry and cell biology
[01:07.51] at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
[01:10.50] "We shine a very short light pulse through the skin.
[01:15.09] And this light pulse is absorbed only by malaria parasites
[01:21.42] because of the wavelength we use.
[01:25.16] And in response to this short light pulse,
[01:30.16] the parasite literally explodes," he said.
[01:33.48] The light pulse comes from a low-powered laser.
[01:37.80] It has less power than a laser point.
[01:41.17] It shines on a very tiny particle called the hemozoin
[01:46.43]
[01:49.61] once it has infected red blood cells.
[01:52.87] Hemozoin crystals are not found in red cells
[01:56.72] that are not infected with malaria.
[01:59.86] As the crystals are heated by the laser,
[02:03.15] they create small bubbles inside infected cells.
[02:07.25] Doctor Lopotko says the bubbles exploded,
[02:10.93] and then make a sound that scientists can hear and count.
[02:17.15] "You can detect just a few infected cells
[02:21.39] in a million normal cells," he said.
[02:24.92] Doctor Lopotko says when researchers tested the device,
[02:29.17] it was never wrong.
[02:30.96] And it was able to find malaria infection early
[02:35.20] when treatment is very important.
[02:37.13] The device can be carried and uses its batteries.
[02:41.64] It costs about 10,000 to 20,000 dollars to make.
[02:46.64] But Doctor Lopotko says
[02:48.91] considering the number of people it can test,
[02:51.67] that is not a lot of money.
[02:54.51] "Each device will be capable to screen more than 200,000 people per year.
[03:01.18] So the cost of analysis for each patient
[03:06.65] will be less than 50 cents," he said.
[03:08.83] People without medical training can use the device
[03:12.73] to discover whether people are infected with malaria.
[03:16.29] Doctor Lopotko says the light beam used by the device is safe.
[03:21.85] Researchers will now test the device at a hospital in Houston
[03:27.20] that cares for patients infected with malaria.
[03:30.69] If those tests are successful,
[03:33.31] researchers will test the device throughout the world this year.
[03:38.17] An article describing the malaria detection device
[03:42.48] was published in the journal
[03:44.40] Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
[03:47.84] And that's the VOA Learning English Health Report.
[03:52.40] I'm Christopher Cruise.
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