Slashdot Mirror
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.
Here is a link to the original article cited by the Times that contains more detail.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
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.
Honestly I can see a lot of good uses for it. From testing in third world countries by Doctors without borders to testing a partner before you go without a condom. Most people get to know each other before they drop the condoms but how many actually go down and get tested? I know I do and I ask my partners to before we drop the condom but from most peoples reaction I can tell that it is not a common request.
Hell how many get regularly tested? I get tested a couple of times a year but from what I can tell most don't and have no real idea what their status is. Some are afraid of getting tested for fear of being labeled or having that status known by the government, insurance, or anyone else. This allows personal, anonymous testing. So something like this could be a great thing to have.
You know the second it becomes available it will be used by insurance companies during the initial physical. There is a market for such a device and if it makes it to production I see it being a BIG seller.
if an HIV test helps you decide whether or not to wear a cover, then you're one risky mofo.
"Pricking yourself with something that an infected person used is a sure-fire way to get an infection.
It's as if you don't even know how diabetic test strips, and other test strips like this one, work, or even that lancets of all kinds are disposable.
If you RTFA and click through to the Science Daily article, you'd read this:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/re...
That is fucking spectacular.
Shut the fuck up.
--
BMO
The device has replacable cassettes that contain the reagents for the testing. To develop a device like this only to have it capable of spreading infection would be an incredibly stupid oversight.
... in the U.S.A. but about 70$ in Canada.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Hey, no worries, this is Slashdot!
Give him a couple more years sitting on his couch-bed in his mother's basement drinking Mountain Dew and eating chips while playing video games and troling Slashdot.
He WILL know all about lancets! Or be dead. One or the other.
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.
The very next comment after mine starts with "Imagine if you can prick the finger of a hooker in a Pattaya bar while you're drinking". Tell me again that warning people not to share a device like that is unnecessary.
So rather than read, you decide to double-down on the stupid.
Let me explain this loudly and slower so you may understand.
T_H_E__L_A_N_C_E_T_S__A_R_E__D_I_S_P_O_S_E_D__A_F_T_E_R__U_S_E
Thrown away, into the trash. With the cap placed back on so nobody gets stuck. They come in boxes of 100 and they are fucking cheap. No sane person re-uses a lancet.
You're exhibiting some weapons-grade stupid there, guy.
--
BMO