The coronavirus disease 2019, commonly referred to as COVID-19, is a contagious respiratory illness. The disease is caused by a virus that can spread from the mouth or nose of one person who is infected to the other through small particles in liquid form. It normally happens when these infected people sneeze, breathe, cough, or even speak. One can be infected by breathing in the virus if they are close to the infected persons or rather by just touching or coming into contact with a contaminated surface and then going ahead to touch their face. COVID-19 was first discovered in Wuhan, China, spreading fast to other states and continents. In 2020, it was declared a global pandemic as people were dying within 24 hours of contracting the disease. The World Health Organization had to come up with preventive measures to control the spread of the virus. Amongst the control measures were wearing masks, in that no one was allowed to walk in public without it, and washing hands regularly with flowing water. The health workers urged the public members to avoid close contact with people, cover themselves when sneezing, and avoid touching their faces.
Despite the drop in the number of COVID-19 patients, different variants keep on showing up one after the other. The world is still looking for a permanent solution to the virus. Some people still contract the disease, especially the new variants, despite being vaccinated.
However, as the Omicron variant cases of COVID-19 surface, a group of researchers from Japan has come up with face masks that will use ostrich antibodies to sense the virus. The researchers reported that the masks would glow if they had traces of coronavirus when exposed to flared light. We give the credits to a Japanese veterinary doctor named Yasuhiro Tsukamoto and his team at the University of Kyoto in western Japan. The masks will provide for low-budget virus testing and could be easily done at home by anyone.
The scientists started by making mask filters coated with antibodies from ostriches. They had targeted the virus since research shows that birds and, more specifically, ostriches have a strong immunity or rather a strong resistance to diseases. Several people volunteered to wear the mask filters in the partial fulfillment of the research, and after eight hours, they removed the filters. The scientists then sprayed them with a chemical that could glow under ultraviolet lights if the virus was present. The results showed that the filters from infected people glowed around the mouth and nose, and the glow diminished when the subjects recovered from the coronavirus disease. The researchers hope that they will make masks that will automatically glow without the help of special lighting whenever the virus is detected.
The WEF group testified that some people witnessed the testing. They affirm that if approved by the WHO, it will be a low-budget test for COVID-19. They asserted that the ostriches are known for their strong resistance against diseases and if the research is successful more people should participate, and later the scientists can supply worldwide. WEF’s panelists were positive that the researchers proved that they could extract a lot of antibodies from the ostriches to make sure the process becomes a success to the whole world.
If this experiment is successful, it will be the best idea to help millions of people worldwide. Some people are just ignorant about testing themselves for COVID-19; others live in remote areas where they have to walk for miles to get to a Health Centre. On the other hand, others have busy schedules, and they cannot get time out of their routines to get tested. Hence this will be the best way to test them because they can do it anywhere. It will be an easy way of testing so that people will not spread the virus unknowingly. Some of the researchers found out that they had the virus through the glowing masks and went ahead to confirm from a standardized test. We can clearly deduce that the glowing masks will do a great job from the above findings.