Together Against Malaria

An innovative new phone that includes a microscope could help combat the spread of deadly diseases in the most remote parts of the world. The CelloPhone can be used to diagnose diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria and will act as a mobile doctor in places where medical resources are limited.

The idea started as a student project at Berkeley College in the US. It developed into “Celloscope” and became the winner of the Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project prize.

The Celloscope works in the same manner as a laboratory-style florescence microscope but has the advantage of being portable, meaning that it can be used in developing countries where facilities are scarce. For example, the Gambia struggles to combat malaria (the cause of 25% of child deaths annually) but they do have good mobile phone networks and so can make use of the advantages of the CelloPhone.

Celloscope studies sample cells from blood, urine or saliva. These images are then sent by MMS to a central station where a computer programme returns the diagnosis to CelloPhone as a text message. Malaria is a major public health problem around the world, with 300 to 500 million people in more than 100 countries suffering from malaria annually.  90% of these cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is curable, yet the disease kills more than a million people each year, mainly children under five.

With the advent of the Cellophone, eradication may no longer be a dream. The Gambia has been doing well so far with its malaria control program and may manage to eliminate it in the next decade, especially with the advantage of a coastal location (which means a swathe of the country is free from malaria-infested borders). The Cellophone could help with a faster diagnosis in a region with limited resources but a high rate of survival.

An innovative new phone that includes a microscope could help combat the spread of deadly diseases in the most remote parts of the world. The CelloPhone can be used to diagnose diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria and will act as a mobile doctor in places where medical resources are limited.

The idea started as a student project at Berkeley College in the US. It developed into “Celloscope” and became the winner of the Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project prize.

The Celloscope works in the same manner as a laboratory-style florescence microscope but has the advantage of being portable, meaning that it can be used in developing countries where facilities are scarce. For example, the Gambia struggles to combat malaria (the cause of 25% of child deaths annually) but they do have good mobile phone networks and so can make use of the advantages of the CelloPhone.

Celloscope studies sample cells from blood, urine or saliva. These images are then sent by MMS to a central station where a computer programme returns the diagnosis to CelloPhone as a text message. Malaria is a major public health problem around the world, with 300 to 500 million people in more than 100 countries suffering from malaria annually.  90% of these cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is curable, yet the disease kills more than a million people each year, mainly children under five.

With the advent of the Cellophone, eradication may no longer be a dream. The Gambia has been doing well so far with its malaria control program and may manage to eliminate it in the next decade, especially with the advantage of a coastal location (which means a swathe of the country is free from malaria-infested borders). The Cellophone could help with a faster diagnosis in a region with limited resources but a high rate of survival.