Scientists at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are developing a mask of protection that will have the ability to detect whether a person is contaminated by new coronavirus. Every time someone infected coughs, sneezes or even breathes, a fluorescent light will come on.
According to the researchers, the action can help alleviate the problem of lack of tests, recurrent in many countries. Thus, doctors will be able to put the mask on patients and quickly find out, without the need to take the tests to a laboratory, whether or not they have the Covid-19.
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This technology will be the adaptation of a test, carried out in 2014 by MIT, when researchers began the development of sensors that had the possibility of detecting the virus of Ebola once frozen on paper.
In 2018, the universities' laboratories were already qualified to recognize, through the contribution of sensors, SARS, influenza, hepatitis C, measles, between others.
smart masks
“The mask can even be used at airports, when going through security, or while waiting to board a plane. We can use it to go to work. Hospitals can use it for people in waiting rooms, or to assess who is infected," MIT's Jim Collins told the website. Business Insider.
According to Collins, the project is “in the beginning”, but still presents satisfactory results. In recent weeks, the team of researchers has even been testing the object to see if it is capable of detecting the new coronavirus via saliva. The expectation is to prove that the theory is also successful in practice in the “coming weeks”.
The identification sensors need two pieces of information to be activated, humidity and the genetic sequence of the virus. Moisture, obtained by saliva, for example, is frozen in the fabric of the mask and can remain stable at room temperature for months.
In January, a laboratory in Shanghai sequenced the genome of the coronavirus. From this, the mask will be developed and, once it is used, it will be able to detect the new coronavirus within one to three hours of use. You Covid-19 tests it has taken 24 hours or more to get the result.
Accessories can be another alternative to thermometers, given that they do not identify patients who are considered asymptomatic.
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