A novel method of detecting malaria using microwaves

Malaria is one of the most common infectious diseases and an enormous public health problem and claims an estimated 1–3 million lives every year and the majority of whom are young children. No vaccine is currently available for the treatment of malaria. This letter proposes a new method of detecting malaria based on the measurement of the dielectric properties of blood at the microwave frequencies. The measurements were made at the S‐band of microwave frequency using rectangular cavity perturbation technique with the samples of blood from healthy donors as well as from malaria patients. It is found that an appreciably change in the dielectric properties of patient samples with the normal healthy samples and this measurements were in good agreement with clinical results. This measurement is a new novel in vitro method of diagnosing malaria at its onset using microwaves, so that necessary precautions can be taken such as proper preventative drugs, which will continuously reduce the risk of infection. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 915–918, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24202