While countries like Sri Lanka have become malaria-free in recent years, malaria remains a potent global disease. Transmitted by mosquitoes, it kills nearly half a million people annually, primarily in tropical regions.

Treatment programs are still ongoing worldwide, including in India, Sri Lanka’s northern neighborhood, which is still affected by the disease. The WHO outlined in its new Global Technical Strategy for Malaria that, “Strengthening malaria surveillance is fundamental to program planning and implementation and is a crucial factor for accelerating progress” with the goal of eradicating epidemic outbreaks by 2030.

This is where where Israeli rapid diagnostic testing (RDT) company Sight Diagnostics, or SightDx, comes in. On the heels of its existing Parasight devices in African, European, and Asian hospitals that use advanced computer vison technology to detect malaria-bearing parasites in blood, SightDx is now partnering with the US Army Medical Research Directorate Kenya (USAMRD-K). There, they will “develop and test the next generation of the SightDx malaria diagnostic technology … a portable malaria and complete blood count (CBC) reader” that will be field tested in Kenya.

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