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Breath test for malaria possible, Australian researchers say

Xinhua, April 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

Malaria, the tropical disease responsible for the deaths of half a million people each year, could soon be diagnosed with a quick and simple breath test, Australian researchers announced on Tuesday.

The researchers found that normally undetectable distinctive chemicals are increased markedly in the breath of those with the mosquito-born disease, giving hope that a cheap, portable system could replace blood tests.

While the researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Queensland Institute of Medical Research Berghofer (QIMR Berghofer) and Australian National University (ANU) have only trialled with volunteer patients given controlled malaria infections, the signs are promising.

"What is exciting is that the increase in these chemicals were present at very early stages of infection, when many other methods would have been unable to detect the parasite in the body of people infected with malaria," Dr Stephen Trowell, Research Group Leader at CSIRO said in a statement.

"In addition to its potentially better sensitivity, human breath offers an attractive alternative to blood tests for diagnosing malaria."

The research, published on Tuesday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, identified four sulphur-containing compounds whose levels varied across the time course of the malaria infection.

Researchers said sulphur containing chemicals, that had not previously been associated with any disease, changed in a consistent pattern over the course of the malaria infection.

"Now we are collaborating with researchers in regions where malaria is endemic, to test whether the same chemicals can be found in the breath of patients," Trowell said.

"We are also working with colleagues to develop very specific, sensitive and cheap 'biosensors' that could be used in the clinic and the field to test breath for malaria."

The disease, named by the medieval Italians in reference to the foul-smelling air around swamps and marshes, was responsible for 200 million cases worldwide in 2013, according to the World Health Organization. Endi