One of the biggest challenges in fighting tuberculosis is simply getting patients to take their medicine.

MIT students have come up with a possible solution: A new testing and reporting system that is easy for patients to use and offers economic incentives such as free cell phone minutes.

Tuberculosis kills an estimated two million people every year, and treating the disease requires a strict six-month regimen of antibiotics. If patients abandon the treatment early, the TB bacteria survive and can become resistant to first-line antibiotics.

“TB is a massive problem, and it’s exacerbated by the fact that people have a lot of trouble staying on their meds,” says Elizabeth Leshen, an MIT sophomore majoring in biological engineering and member of the team, known as “X Out TB.”

The students’ plan, which has been field-tested in Nicaragua, combines a newly developed paper testing strip with a simple text message reporting system to ensure drug compliance.

The team’s novel test strip takes advantage of new technology known as paper microfluidics. The strip is embedded with chemicals that react with metabolites present in the urine of patients who have taken TB medicine. When the chemical reaction occurs, the strip changes color, revealing a number.

Read the complete article at MIT News