Detecting Tuberculosis: No Microscopes, Just Rats.

Jack Deasy 

                This article is about how rats are a new way to test for tuberculosis. All you have to do is get a sputum and from this the rat is able to smell it and determine if it is in fact tuberculosis or just an other disease. This can prove to be very useful because it is much more cost efficient then the method used today. The method used today costs $17,000 for the machine and $17 for each sample that is tested. Once the rats are born they teach them how to discover if it is tuberculosis or not. When a rat detects a positive sample they are rewarded and when they do not they receive nothing.

                I think that this article affects most people in the world. The reason is that if they have found a cheaper and faster way to determine if patients do indeed have tuberculosis, this could save many lives. This would allow for more people to take the test and perhaps have this disease identified much sooner.

                I think that overall this was a well written article. I think that it was a little confusing, but overall did a good job at presenting the information.

Bakalar, Nicholas. Detecting Tuberculosis: No Microscopes, Just Rats. New York City: n.p., 2011. Web. 5 Jan. 2011.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/health/04tb.html?ref=science.