People are hoping that the new microchip developed in the United Kingdom will help Christian doctors in India in saving patients from blindness.
The said prototype invention can detect eye infections in a few minutes unlike current methods. The prototype will be checked and tested on patients at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, Tamil Nadu state.
The microchip was created with the help of the University Hospital of Southampton (NHS) Foundation Trust's opthalmologists and engineers.
"Outside of the UK, rapid detection and targeted antibiotic treatments for eye infections are very urgent needs for many people living in some of the poorest countries in the world," Professor Myron Christodoulides, professor of bacteriology at the University of Southampton reportedly said.
It has been reported that previous testing for corneal infections has involved procedures which ranges in time from 48 hours and a fortnight.
Professor Christodoulides also revealed that there are thirty patients who are already selected to try the newmicrochips. Some of the participants were selected from the Lighthouse Eye Hospital in Kenya. He added that this would be an "exciting project."
"The cornea is only half a millimetre thick and infections can spread rapidly and destroy this structure, so timely treatment is extremely important, but we also have the added complication that treatment can be very different for each type of bacteria present," the professor said.
"These findings, although currently laboratory-based, could have deep implications for the detection and treatment of corneal infections as it has the potential to reduce diagnosis time from up to two weeks to only a few minutes - and the ability to deliver the correct antibiotics immediately," he further added.
