Inexpensive Paper Strips Can Test For Malaria, Cancer At Home

Last year, there were more than 200 million new cases of malaria, which led to nearly half a million deaths, according to the World Health Organization. About 90 percent of malaria deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Malaria is spread by mosquitoes and causes fever, headache and vomiting. The disease can lead to anemia, lifelong learning disabilities and death.

Aid groups and humanitarian organizations have been mostly focusing their efforts on the treatment and prevention of malaria.

The Gates Foundation, for example, committed to spending more than $4 billion over the next five years on tackling the disease’s drug-resistant strains. 

Nonprofit group Nothing But Nets works with U.N. agencies to distribute bed nets to help prevent mosquito bites.

It has distributed more than 7 million nets in areas of need in sub-Saharan Africa. 

“We want to empower people,” Badu-Tawiah said in a statement. “If you care at all about your health and you have reason to worry about a condition, then you don’t want to wait until you get sick to go to the hospital. You could test yourself as often as you want.”