Title:
New Ways for Poor Countries to Diagnose Infectious
Diseases
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
Two new discoveries could offer easier ways to
identify infectious diseases in developing
countries.
The first involves sheep. Researchers have found
that hair sheep are a good source of blood for use
in tests to diagnose infectious diseases in people.
In developed countries, microbiologists do these
tests with blood from wool sheep or horses. But for
developing countries, that costs too much. So tests
often use human blood instead.
Ellen Yeh from the Stanford University School of
Medicine in California was one of the authors of the
study. She explains the problems with using human
blood:
First of all, there is a risk of HIV or other
infectious disease from handling human blood. The
other big problem with using human blood for making
what are called blood agar plates is that they are
not accurate. The results may be wrong.
The study found that blood from hair sheep is an
excellent substitute. It produced the same results
as tests using wool sheep and horses. Also, hair
sheep require less care than wool sheep. They could
better handle hot, dry climates because they do not
have a lot of wool.
It also means they do not need to be sheared.
Doctor Yeh says having to shear the sheep for wool
is very costly and labor intensive. Another
advantage of hair sheep is that they are more
resistant to parasites, so they are less at risk of
infection.
The scientists also tested an easier, cheaper way to
prepare and process the blood. They found this new
method effective. The blood can be collected
directly into bags, much like with human donors.
The study appeared in July in the online journal
PLoS One, from the Public Library of Science.
The same journal also published a report in July on
an experimental device called the CellScope. The
CellScope is a cell phone microscope. Engineers at
the University of California, Berkeley, developed
it.
They attached small microscope lenses to a holder
fitted to a mobile phone. The phone's camera was
able to take color images of malaria parasites and
tuberculosis bacteria in blood and sputum. The team
used a special dye and special lighting to make the
images bright.
The pictures could also be sent wirelessly to
distant experts for diagnosis.
Dan Fletcher heads the team that developed the
CellScope. He notes that many poor areas of the
world have few hospitals, yet have mobile phone
networks that are
well developed.
And that's the VOA Special English Development
Report, available online at voaspecialenglish.com.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
