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Smartphone Attachment Can Test For HIV In 15 Minutes
stephendavion writes A team of researchers from Columbia University have developed a device that can be plugged into a smartphone and used to quickly test for HIV and syphilis. The mobile device tests for three infectious disease markers in just 15 minutes by using a finger-prick of blood, and draws all the power it needs from the smartphone, Science Daily reports. The accessory costs an estimated $34 to make and is capable of replicating tests done in a laboratory using equipment that costs many thousands of dollars.
I'm guessing the target audience is medical workers in poorer countries with limited access to labratory equipment to test for these diseases. The local doctor can come to the village with their smartphone, this device, and a bunch of clean needles for it. The more mobile and cheaper medical equipment can be, the easier it is to care for people. This doesn't address the idea of safe sex though, its just a piece of test equipment.
... in the U.S.A. but about 70$ in Canada.
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Imagine if you can prick the finger of a hooker in a Pattaya bar while you're drinking, "just as a joke!", and figure out whether you need to strap on a condom or not. Wonderful invention for all the people who need immediate HIV tests for their partners! Yay for sex tourism!
Except that STDs likely take a specific gestation period to start showing up on tests like these. If you choose to skip the condom when engaging with a sex worker, that's your dice to roll.
Until it goes wrong and doesn't work. This type of thing is a litigation nightmare. Looks like vaporware to me, and the actual legitimate applications seem few.
Unless some idiot is going to slap a 100% STD-free guarantee behind this test, there is nothing to litigate. This is a product and service that should not be guaranteed, nor meant to replace a medical specialist or doctor. In that sense, it has every right to thrive and survive right next to the home pregnancy kits.
As far as the applications? Take a look at the current STD landscape and you tell me if there are applications. Humans are stupid, ignorant, animals who have unprotected sex because they believe bad shit always happens to "someone else". There, I've just established the justification to apply this to the human race.
What's the false positive and false negative rates of this cheap test, vs the normal one? While it's probably better to have a mediocre test rather than none at all, there are times when that's not true... high false positive rates for rare conditions can waste resources on healthy individuals. High false negative rates for common conditions can give patients a false sense of safety.
The specificity of the test matters a lot before you can judge its utility.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.