Objects of controversy and concerns, coronavirus screening tests do not only have advantages. Besides the fact that there is not enough for everyone, their reliability varies from one to the other. Not to mention that they are often very expensive. An alternative solution may be emerging. Bioengineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing a new protective mask that would also be able to detect the disease in the wearer.
How? 'Or' What ? By emitting a fluorescent signal when you cough, if you are reached by the Covid-19. The mask is equipped with micro-sensors which are colored when the virus is present. The object is still in the testing stages but the researchers hope to move quickly. Next step, "set up tests with people likely to be infected, to see if it works in a real environment", explains one of the scientists working on the project.
This mask could also help detect the presence of the virus in asymptomatic people, who have no fever or sore throat, but who are potentially contagious. The tool, bio-engineers hope, could be used especially at airports but also in hospitals "for patients arriving or waiting in the waiting room to screen patients for infection. We are not there yet.
If these masks arrive on the market, it will not be necessary to scrutinize the people you meet, to find fluorescent traces there. The signal will be invisible to the naked eye and a spectrofluorometer will be needed to detect the presence of the virus in the tissue. Another question: will it be necessary to equip all the masks with this process or only a particular category?
So you’ll have to wait a bit longer before you know more. Hopefully, above all, the end of the epidemic will allow us to be able to wander around again with our faces uncovered.
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