Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 8, 1994                   TAG: 9402080029
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

SEX-DISEASE TEST WILL BRING $1 MILLION

The Rockefeller Foundation promised that prize Monday to the inventor of a diagnostic test suitable for developing nations and other poor areas.

The test must be inexpensive, quick, easy to perform and workable without refrigeration, running water or more power than it can get from a 9-volt battery. It must detect both diseases before any symptoms appear, and meet other technical requirements.

Worldwide, more than 50 million new cases of chlamydia and 25 million new cases of gonorrhea are thought to occur each year. If untreated, they can lead to infertility, potentially lethal ectopic pregnancies and infant blindness.

Both diseases can be treated inexpensively, but they often produce no symptoms and are difficult to detect.

- Associated Press