Matibabu is the first smartphone-based diagnosis system for malaria. Malaria is still one of the biggest health problems in Africa. The team Code8 from Uganda have developed this ingenious idea and also just won the Microsoft Imagine Cup as the first team from Africa ever recently. The mobile app can diagnose malaria without pricking the body.
The idea was developed after one of the team members fell sick of malaria and went through a painful and traumatising process of needle pricks and they tried to draw blood out of his body to test for malaria. In addition, the whole process took over 30 minutes just to get the laboratory results. As all this happened, we asked ourselves the same question, “Can‘t there be a way we can have this process less or not painful and timely?” We sat down after return from hospital, brainstormed and concluded we should take on the project.