Breath markers for malaria

A CSIRO research team will spend the next 18 months field-testing its newly developed breath markers for malaria in locations such as Malawi, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Sudan.

The validation trials follow on from last year’s discovery by scientists at CSIRO, the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and the Australian National University of distinctive chemicals that can be detected in the breath of patients infected with malaria.

“Our initial research really opened our eyes to the potential for a new test, because the chemicals that we found in the breath of patients could be detected at the very early stages of infection,” said CSIRO Research Group Leader Dr Stephen Trowell.

Thanks to a $1.4 million research grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CSIRO can now test the accuracy and effectiveness of the breath markers under real-world conditions. With the help of national and international collaborators, the team will ask people with suspected malaria to provide a breath sample, in addition to the normal testing and treatment they receive at health clinics. Some ‘control’ patients who are not suspected to have malaria will also be asked to donate a breath sample for comparison.

All the chemicals present in the breath will be stabilised in special sample tubes and transported to Canberra or St Louis, USA, for chemical and statistical analysis.

“If this phase of the research pans out, we intend to move onto developing a simple, painless and cheap breath test to help identify people who have malaria but don’t know it,” said Dr Trowell.

“This would enable better targeting of treatments to stop transmission of the disease.”