The fight against Malaria has received a major boost with news that the world’s first urine Malaria diagnosis, the Fyodor’s Urine Malaria Test (UMT) is set to be released soon.
The UMT was created by Fyodor, a US based biotechnology firm founded by Nigerian Eddy Agbo.
According to Quartz Africa, the test provides, “point-of-need diagnosis of the Plasmodium parasite using dipstick technology as used with manual pregnancy tests. The urine malaria test is expected to be in pharmacies across Nigeria before the end of the year”.
The do-it-yourself test can be performed and read by persons with little or no training.
According to Fyodor, the test is the first product with the appropriate specifications to make diagnosis within 24 hours possible. This ability to diagnose Malaria quickly and less expensively, and to treat only in the case of confirmed Malaria, will save time, reduce dependance on overprescribed medicines, the company noted.
Despite the reported decrease in Malaria mortality rates in recent years, according to Bayer, “Malaria is still the number one cause of hospitalisations and deaths in Africa. In fact, malaria causes more deaths than HIV and tuberculosis, considering that there is a malaria related death every 30 seconds in Africa”.
The availability of the test, which offers accurate and early diagnosis of malaria will greatly benefit Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the World Health Organisation, the “region continues to carry a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. In 2015, the region was home to 89% of malaria cases and 91% of malaria deaths”.
Source: Quartz Africa