Measurements for measles, rubella in 35 minutes

The device called MR Box can detect antiviral antibodies that cause measles and rubella even before a person has measles / rubella.

According to Canadian press, a group of international experts successfully tested the new device called MR Box.

This cheap and compact device can help warn the risk of infectious diseases such as measles, a disease that kills tens of thousands of people every year, mainly in developing countries.

With the equivalent of an oven and integrating lab-on-a-chip technology capable of on-site testing, MR Box was transferred to Kakuma refugee camp in the research team. northwestern Kenya and tested on 144 young children and caregivers.

Equipment for rapid detection of measles by Canadian researchers - (Photo: thechronicleherald.ca).

Epidemiologist Amy Summers of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that just a small drop of blood from a human finger, within 35 minutes, MR Box can quickly detect the existence of Antiviral antibodies cause measles and rubella, even before a person has measles / rubella or before vaccination.

The co-head of the project, researcher Darius Rackus at the University of Toronto in Canada, said 86% of the MR Box measles samples and 92% of the samples matched the results obtained at the laboratory. International standard of Kenya Medical Research Institute.

The team expects MR Box to become a useful device to be used in areas where refugees are concentrated because of conflict and violence, or in remote areas where people are at high risk of infection. easily transmitted due to inadequate vaccination, as well as unsafe and unsanitary habitats and frequent food shortages.

The research team is currently testing similar on-site testing technology to detect the risk of malaria and Zika virus infection early in newborn babies.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 134,000 babies die each year from measles, while rubella is responsible for about 100,000 fetuses with birth defects.

The study has just been published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.