Inventor gives painful diabetes tests the needle
A PRETORIA man, Bonex Mwakikunga, invented a diabetes breathalyser when he saw the pain his 3-year-old daughter went through when she was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus Type 1.
The device can be used to monitor diabetes. He said seeing his daughter’s pain at being injected with insulin and the trauma that came with her being pricked for blood to manage her condition gave him a helpless feeling.
“My daughter was diagnosed when she was 3 in 2009. I watched her pain in managing this lifetime condition.
“I started steering my gas sensor experience into the detection of biomarkers in the breath that could be linked to blood sugar,” Mwakikunga said.
The Muckleneuk resident and owner of Breath-Tech Sensors, said his invention worked via a cellphone. The analyser detects acetone, which is a biomarker for diabetes. He said the apparatus was attached to a smartphone and it transformed into an easy-to-use mobile unit.
The Malawian- born inventor developed the breathalyser to monitor glucose, instead of having to prick for blood every day.
The device eliminates the discomfort of monitoring and allows more measurements a day. This leads to better management of the disease, and fewer amputations caused by finger sepsis from pricking, as well as fewer mortalities, he said.
Mwakikunga obtained his Bachelor’s and Honours degrees from Chancellor’s College of the University of Malawi in 1992 and 1993, and his Master’s in science and a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2006 and 2010.
He went on to do his post-doctoral research at the National Laser Centre of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research from 2010 to 2012, before he joined the CSIR/DST National Centre for Nano-Structured Materials in 2013, where he became a senior researcher on gas sensors.
The breathalyser invention got him the opportunity to be one of the top 10 inventors in Cell C’s thrilling reality show, Hangman, where he could walk away with a R1 million cash prize.
He said he was appreciative of the opportunity to be in the top 10, and was excited to follow the journey of the competition.
“It has been a wonderful experience so far. I am really excited to have made the top 10, and am looking forward to the remainder of the journey,” he said.
The final of the Hangman competition is on December 10 and, Mwakikunga said, he was hoping for a win.