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April 2009

 NC State students Hersh Tapadia, Daniel Jeck and Pavak Shah discuss a device they invented that can diagnose tuberculosis in seconds, at a cost of less than a dollar.

Fighting TB As Easy As 1-2-3

It's one of the world's most intractable medical problems, spreading at the alarming rate of one new infection every four seconds. The disease is tuberculosis, and it has now infected up to one-third of the people on Earth, primarily in the developing world, where diagnostic and treatment tools are scarce. And it's an effective killer, claiming 1.7 million victims every year. But those numbers may change, thanks to the pioneering work of three NC State undergraduates, who have developed the first practical diagnostic device for TB that is cheap, fast and accurate.