In a story on March 8, Bioworld Today cited Becton Dickinson's plans tomarket a new dipstick for diagnosing malaria, at $1 per test and alsoquoted epidemiologist Peter Bloland of the Centers for Disease Controland Prevention as saying that many African countries can budget only $1a year per capita for all health care.

According to Becton Dickinson, a World Health Organization/Tropical DiseaseResearch study shows that the traditional thick-film slide method ofdiagnosing malaria costs between $1.25 and $3.50 in tropical countries.Becton also quotes a World Bank report listing what 14 African countriesspent per capita on health in 1991. The figures ranged from $42 in theIvory Coast to $16 in Kenya, where the dipstick trials were conducted.031694Dipstick

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