DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTION OF A LOW-COST LABORATORY SLIDE DRYER.

Abstract

Our project is about the design and construction of a low-cost laboratory slide as an immediate means to mitigate the problems associated with the delay in the drying of blood slides during the diagnosis of malaria in various local clinical laboratories, the team focused on designing a portable low-cost slide dryer which operates in a way that when the blood slides are inserted inside it, the optimum time taken to dry the blood slides is minimized making the task effective and effective.

The recent pandemic and endemic (COVID 19 and EBOLA) respectively have profoundly impacted global malaria elimination programs resulting in a sharp increase in malaria morbidity and mortality. To reduce this impact, unmet needs in malaria diagnostics must be addressed while resuming malaria elimination activities. Rapid diagnosis tests (RDTs), the unsung hero in malaria diagnosis, work to eliminate the prevalence of plasmodium falciparum malaria (species) through their efficient, cost effective and user-friendly qualities in detecting the antigen hrp2 (histidine _rich protein 2), among other proteins, however, the testing mechanism and management of malaria with RDTs presents a variety of limitations that is to say identifying of certain malaria parasites in blood.

When carrying out serological surveys, particularly in remote locations, it is of great advantage to have a method of collecting and storing blood samples which does not require that facilities for centrifugation and which is relatively robust to irregular degrees of refrigeration, at least for short periods.