3D-printed blood smear devices for malaria detection

A research collaboration between Cambridge University (UK), Bath University (UK) and the Ifakara Health Institute (Ifakara, Tanzania) has produced 3D-printed blood smear devices to tackle the significant rate of malaria detection errors.  Malaria is a deadly disease, taking the lives of over 400,000 individuals globally each year. Performing a blood smear is a key step in malaria detection, as is the case for many bloodborne diseases. This process involves taking a drop of blood from a patient and spreading it across a microscope slide for examination.   However, 81.5% of blood smear tests to detect malaria are prepared incorrectly in some...