According to reports carried by Reuters, e wristwatch is said to work by pricking the watch wearer’s wrist with a tiny needle and testing the blood for malaria parasites. If the parasite count rises above 50 an alarm is sounded and an image of a mosquito flashes on the watch face.

The South-African inventor of the watch, Gervan Lubbe, told Reuters, It picks up the parasite and destroys it so early that the possibility of dying is absolutely zero and you don’t even feel the early cold symptoms.

It was further suggested that the monitor could save people working in or traveling to malarial areas from taking expensive anti-malaria drugs which are frequently accompanied by nasty side-effects.

Lubbe told Reuters that over 1.5 million orders have already been placed with his company for the watch. Furthermore, African governments and the World Health Organization are considering the potential for distributing the monitors in rural areas of Africa where malaria treatment is scarce.