The giant rats that love avocado – and can diagnose deadly TB | Kate Lyons

A team in Tanzania have trained African pouched rats to make life-saving discoveries, sniffing out cases of tuberculosis missed by health clinics

After scampering about a sleek glass and aluminium cage, a rat named Riziwan has made a crucial discovery.

In just minutes, Riziwan has positively identified 13 people who may have tuberculosis. The discovery is potentially life-saving news for those whose sputum samples were marked as clear by their local health clinics. But it’s all in a day’s – or rather 15 minutes’ – work for Riziwan and the other giant African pouched rats that work at Belgian organisation Apopo’s TB centre in Morogoro, Tanzania.

Related: 'Without health, people have nothing': Tanzania seeks a political salve – podcast

Continue reading... December 26, 2017 at 12:30PM