Gervan Lubbe, owner of Gervans Trading in Port Elizabeth, said his company would introduce a wristwatch next month that helps detect and destroy malaria early. It picks up the parasite and destroys it so early that the possibility of dying is absolutely zero and you don t even feel the early flu-like symptoms, said Lubbe. If the parasite count tops 50, an alarm sounds and a coloured picture of a mosquito flashes on the watch.
Gervans Trading has already received $1.5m worth of orders for the wristwatch from companies, governments and aid organisations working in Africa. The watch will cost about $280 each, which Lubbe says is cheaper than treating a patient with severe malaria.
The new device will be a relief to a lot of people working or travelling in malaria infested areas, as they will be saved from the stress of taking expensive anti-malaria tablets and suffering their side effects. Companies using the watches will be able to monitor their workers by making them walk through a scanner each day. The watch s radio frequency will transmit information of those wearing it to a central computer so health departments can ensure people at risk take their tablets.
Malaria, which is caused by a parasite carried by the female anopheles mosquito, kills more than one million people every year and makes 300 million seriously ill, Meanwhile, the Mozambican government launched a countrywide spraying campaign on Monday to ward off mosquitoes.
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