Breath Counter

Breath Counter is a device for household diagnosis of childhood pneumonia. It has been developed by Abhay Bang from SEARCH, Gadchiroli, India. In tests, it was shown to increase accuracy of diagnosis from 60% to 82%.

The lack of literacy and numeracy skills among Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) made diagnosis unreliable, since innumerate TBAs were unable to use watches or counting methods to assess breathing rates in infants. To overcome this problem, the Breath Counter uses an abacus for counting and an hourglass for timing. One bead of the abacus is moved for every ten breaths taken by the child; if the red bead is moved before the sand runs out in the hourglass, pneumonia is diagnosed.