US Edition
Land Mines and Tuberculosis Are No Match for ‘Hero Rats’ Sniffing Out Danger, Disease
APOPO's trained rats detect over 30,000 missed tuberculosis cases and locate land mines quickly, offering innovative solutions amid Tanzania's high TB and land mine risks.
- Recently, APOPO trains African giant pouched rats to detect land mines and tuberculosis in Tanzania, deploying them in search-and-rescue drills in Morogoro and the Uluguru Mountains.
- The World Health Organization reported recently TB resurged with 1.25 million deaths and 8.2 million infections in 2023, and Tanzania faces one of the highest global TB burdens prompting APOPO's expansion into TB detection in 2007.
- APOPO reports its rats scan 100 samples in 20 minutes from 80 hospitals in Tanzania, detecting six unique compounds in TB samples, with training costing around 6,000 euros.
- Not being classified by the World Health Organization limits funding, yet Felista Stanesloaus, doctor at a TB clinic in Morogoro, says rats detect otherwise missed cases, preventing spread; operations excel in Dar es Salaam's dense urban centers.
- APOPO is readying its rats for deployments to Angola or Cambodia after clearing more than 50,000 land mines since 2014, while the first cohort operates in Turkey amid regulatory skepticism.
13 Articles
13 Articles
A man lies motionless, collapsing among the rubble of a simulated earthquake, as an unlikely rescuer approaches: a rat with a backpack. With his moustache waving, the rat quickly passes through the garbage, fallen furniture and scattered clothes to find him and pull a trigger in his backpack, alerting the searchers up. Then, a resonant click. A survivor has been found. Searching Morogoro, in the Uluguru mountains of Tanzania, is over and the rat…
MOROGORO — A man lies motionless, collapsed in the rubble of a simulated earthquake, as an unlikely rescuer approaches: a rat with a backpack. Whiskers waving, the rat darts through trash, fallen furniture, and scattered clothing to find him and pull a trigger on his backpack, alerting searchers above.
Associated Press News
Land mines and tuberculosis are no match for Tanzanian rats sniffing out danger and disease
The nonprofit APOPO has worked in Morogoro, Tanzania, for more than two decades to train African giant pouched rats for lifesaving missions.
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 58% of the sources lean Left
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
