According to researchers, they have made use of a smartphone to automatically detect wriggling parasites in blood samples.

The researchers said the CellScope system films a drop of blood and after that an app automatically analyses any movement in the sample to detect the parasites. The device was successful in small trials in Cameroon.

Previous attempts to eliminate two parasitic diseases, river blindness and elephantiasis were suspended as the treatment can become deadly in some people. According to the researchers, one treatment of the drug ivermectin is risky for people with high levels of Loa loa worm, so people require to be screened first. But testing is consumes time and needs laboratory equipment.

Team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the US National Institutes of Health made use of modified smartphone to automate the process. The researchers said that a 'pindrop' was gathered and loaded into a handheld box. After that the phone on top then kicked in.

"With one touch of the screen, the device moves the sample, captures video and automatically analyses the images", said one of the researchers, Prof Daniel Fletcher.

Rather than trying to identify the shape of the worm, the phone software looks for the movement. According to the researchers, the software predicts the number of Loa loa parasites in the blood and informs the healthcare workers they are suitable for drug treatment.

That means very little training is needed and current screening procedures needs someone to be skilled in analyzing blood samples by eye. Early trials in Cameroon of the new approach have been successful and now the researchers are planning to test it on 40,000 people. Prof Fletcher said that he is eager that it offers a new higher-tech approach in order to deal with very low-tech problems.