Given the number of pandemics, the World Health Organization (WHO) may want to consider funding a development programme quite quickly.

IS THERE A CURE FOR COVID 19 ?

Maybe not a cure in terms of a vaccine (just yet), but controls could be developed quite cost effectively that would allow any country to monitor instances of contagion, to enable effective containment, regulation, treatment and enforcement against those unfortunates who have contracted the virus and continue to act irresponsibly - so putting the lives of others at risk.

HEALTH SERVICE CUTS

Where the average age of the population is longer as a result of better lifestyles, health costs have gone up, with governments responding (unofficially) with policies of not providing life extending care, designed to speed up the demise of the elderly.

A case in point is a hospital in Hastings, Sussex, know locally as the "Compost" (real name Conquest) where we know of two alleged cases where a patient went in healthy and one self-discharged to save his life, but the other died from lack of fluids/food, because she could not self-discharge (October 2020). The patient who self-discharged with a gall-stone problem, is alive and kicking today more than 18 months after the incident - where he lost several kilos in weight in less than a week, while in hospital. He has still not had his gall stones removed, because he fears death at the hands of British NHS Trust hospitals.

It is alleged by another party, that the NHS in England has embarked on a strike-out policy that removes patients from the system unless they pursue the system, where patients naturally assume that they are being taken care of behind the scenes, but this appears not to be the case. If they do not make a fuss, they get no treatment.

Another patient was asked to go through the same hoops for two years in a row, before he made a fuss and had an operation. This was before Covid19. Imagine the run around during the pandemic. Hospitals do not have routine screening of staff and patients, or an effective quarantine system. Meaning that you are more likely to become infected if you need treatment.

Presumably, the idea is to eliminate as many customers from the system as possible, so relieving the strain on a dysfunctional service - that now evaluates cost of treatment over saving lives, especially with so many highly-paid consultants creaming off the pie.

If this is happening in England, what chance for the populations in third world countries?

Against this background, and those providing health care not wanting to lose their jobs, it is hardly surprising that any system that reduces the need for doctors will be shunned. Such as computer based diagnostics. Even cars have such systems built in, to help mechanics (the equivalent of surgeons) locate the source of a problem!

WORLD HEALTH MONITORING - DIGITAL DOMESDAY DATABASE

In addition to the monitoring of the affected, the method being suggested, to monitor the disease sustainably for a more resilient new world, will also allow monitoring of world health generally, giving vital statistical data to experts for interpretation and even fine tuning of national health systems. In addition, the patient will know as much as the doctors who would have been treating them, but for severe limitations imposed by the very disease that they should have been monitoring and caring for.

This may not sit well with health professionals who may feel threatened by a system that tends to undermine their diagnosis and opinions more expertly that a seasoned doctor or specialist consultant. But we should move with the times, thinking not of financial gain from patients - and a shift to more expensive private care - but of the common good.

Doctors and other medical staff, would then have more time to deal with actual patients, rather then spend time on paper shuffling and desperately seeking to put patients off having treatments - by giving them the run around. If that sounds familiar, where you are in the world, be assured, this is what is happening in the UK, allegedly.

We should be thinking of taxes that are not being spent wisely - and the patient. But not just the individual patient, protection for citizens and civilization as a whole.

A lab-on-a-chip would need to be combined with a database for live updates and information dissemination for health authorities in every country. Every person should have a chip to monitor their physiology. Every chip should communicate with a national, and then an international database. The means exists, the WHO simply need to act on it. Joining the dots. But there is nothing stopping the European Commission from doing the same, or any of the G7, since they have greater spending power.

LABS ON CHIPS

Electronics and computer programs can achieve in micro-seconds what human doctors might take several minutes to complete. Not only that, but monitoring and analysis can be continuous.

A Lab-On-a-Chip (LOC) is a device that integrates one or several laboratory functions on a single integrated circuit (commonly called a "chip") of only millimeters to a few square centimeters to achieve automation and high-throughput screening. LOCs can handle extremely small fluid volumes down to less than pico-liters. Lab-on-a-chip devices are a subset of Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) devices and sometimes called "micro total analysis systems" (µTAS). The term "lab-on-a-chip" was introduced when it turned out that µTAS technologies could be applied to more than analysis only purposes.

The proposed system would need a modified version of a conventional LOC. Deployment would also use a different method. A LOC was proposed for use in the SeaVax ocean cleaning/monitoring craft in 2016. The NOC in Southampton, UK, was developing an LOC for marine use.

LOCs have been proposed for high speed HIV and cancer diagnosis and in farming for animal selection and breeding. Why this has not been pursued such that the technology is available to everyone is a mystery to us.

The system the Cleaner Ocean Foundation are suggesting should be developed for humans, uses no pumps.

WHO WILL FUND IT?

Provided that state funded research and development yields a suitable chip and computer program, it is likely that through an intensive marketing campaign, that millions of citizens will want to have their health monitored, and will be willing to purchase the hardware (chip), which could be counted as a one-off discount from National Health contributions. Most will already have a PC or other communication device.

Funding problems arise in third world countries without a Health Service. Even in the United States they have problems funding their Health Service and the same applies in the UK. All the more reason why such a monitoring system is needed.

Africa and other poorer parts of the world will present a problem, where free issue should be considered, especially to those who have contracted the virus. They will not need a personal communication device. They can be monitored by third party devices in medical centers. Shops could carry a communication device. This will not provide continuous updates, but is better than no monitoring at all.

WHAT TO DO ?

Unfortunately, policies prevent people without medical training from putting a development team together, for example when in comes to H2020 applications (where we know from the experience of COF that marking of grant applications is lead qualification dependent), but this article may inspire someone with the necessary qualifications or skill to initiate such a project.

You will need electronics, communications and programming skills (or knowledge), to compliment what you know about medicine. You will need quite a few medical experts as part of a team, to help crunch the numbers, but above all you'll need to be able to lead a team and smooth over the lumps as they occur.

If you would like any advice as to how to proceed, our services are free - where we are a not for profit.

Globally, as of 3:49pm CEST, 21 July 2020, there have been 14,562,550 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 607,781 deaths, reported to WHO.

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China, and has resulted in an ongoing pandemic due to the failure of China and the UN's World Health Organization to contain the virus. Chinese airports, seaports, rail and road borders should have been closed immediately to protect their neighbors from infection. It is like a scene from James Bond movie, but more scary, because it is real.

LINKS & REFERENCE

https://phys.org/news/2015-02-optical-nanoantennas-stage-nems-lab-on-a-chip.html

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