2 KNUST students convert old gaming device into diagnostic equipment

General News on Friday, June 14, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-06-14

The centrifuge is one of the most important diagnostic tools for detecting diseases such as malaria and African sleeping sickness.

Unfortunately, it can not be used in areas where power is unavailable or unstable.

Two female biomedical engineering students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology have developed cheaper manual equipment.

They managed the feat by converting a whirligig, an ancestral local gaming device, known to Akan as Akata.

A centrifuge is a high speed spin dryer. Heavier materials move more quickly to the lower tube than under normal gravity.

In the case of blood, the lighter plasma remains afloat while parasites such as plasmodium, responsible for malaria, settle in the center and blood cells in the lower tube.

"In the diagnosis of malaria, centrifuges are very important but expensive. The cheapest price you can get is about 12,000 cedis and the poor communities in the village can not have it, "said Prince Odame, their supervisor.

Whirligig, known locally as Akata, is flat flattened cork. Two holes in the center provide a hold space for the string.

The characteristic buzz that he produces in movement gives him the name of Akatahin in Akan.

Final year students in biomedical engineering, Sanaa Mehmood and Rose Adu Darko, as well as the supervisor, Prince Odame, have sought to make "Akata" a great medical tool.

It includes an electrical junction pipe, a fisherman's wire, two cardboard straws glued to the card.

"We used the junction pipe that is easy to acquire for easy rotation, and then we used velcro to stick the two discs together before rotation," says Sanaa.

A capillary tube is used to collect blood samples and attached to the inside of the straw.

The hand-held juicer works by holding the electrical connecting hoses extended.

When the operator moves the handle back and forth, he produces a force called torque that drives the rotation of the disc.

The rotating tubes containing the blood samples are well separated for testing within 2 minutes.

"We hope that hospitals in urban communities where there are dumsors and rural areas will benefit because they do not need professionals to make them work. It's a simple machine. The good thing is that the price is about 10 cedis, "said Sanaa.