According to a statement posted to the university's website.The team will be led by J. Paul Robinson, a professor in Purdue's school of biomedical engineering and veterinary medicine, and will include Hildred Sarah Rochon, research coordinator of the Cytometry for Life programme, and Gilbert Rochon, Purdue's associate vice president for collaborative research.
During the trip, the three plan to meet with Nigerian leaders and health officials to discuss how their technology could help monitor and treat the estimated 3.4 million HIV-positive people in Nigeria.The new technology will ensure a cheaper and more effective monitoring of the CD4 cells, which are depleted by AIDS.
Normal CD4 cell counts are between 500 and 1,500, but counts of less than 200 in HIV-positive patients signals the AIDS virus.The technology currently available for testing CD4 cells cost about US$100,000, with each patient spending about US$10 per test.
However, the US researchers said the new technology would reduce the cost to 25 to 50 cents per test.The US team did not indicate if it would visit other African countries during their trip.About 28 million of the estimated 40 million people in the world with AIDS are in Africa.