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A USB Stick Can Show HIV Test Results In Under 30 Minutes (qz.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the turn-and-cough dept.

Researchers at Imperial College London have developed a USB stick that can measure the presence and amount of HIV in a person's blood in under 30 minutes and with 95% accuracy. The USB stick should help make testing easier in places like sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV is a serious problem and where many people live in rural regions hours or days travel away from hospitals or clinics. Also, traditional HIV testing can take days to show results, whereas the USB stick can show results in minutes. Quartz reports: The new diagnostic tool, co-created by the university and biotech company DNA Electronics, requires simply putting a single drop of blood onto a designated spot on the USB stick. The device contains a mechanism that can detect if there's any HIV genetic material -- RNA -- in the drop of blood, and if so, how much. Then, when the stick is connected to a laptop or handheld device, the data are automatically delivered to an app where the patient can quickly read his or her results. One of the most effective HIV treatments currently, called anti-retroviral treatment, reduces virus levels to near zero. However, in some cases, the virus may develop a resistance to medication or therapy, causing the virus to resurface. To catch such developments early, patients can use the devices for monitoring purposes. "The disposable test could be used by HIV patients to monitor their own treatment and help patients in remote regions of the world, where more standard HIV tests are inaccessible," the authors of the study write. For now, it's still in the proof-of-concept stage, and years away from hitting the market.

2 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I have an even faster and cheaper test by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If your asshole is tight and is only used for poop, then you don't have HIV.

    You dumb fuck.

    http://www.medpagetoday.com/me...

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. Re:I have an even faster and cheaper test by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Actually, we have had simple paper test strips for over 15 years in this country, but the gay community has kept them from being widely distributed because they claim to fear discriminatory reprisals if HIV tests were readily available to the public.

    How absurd! Rapid HIV tests are widely available at health clinics and STD testing centres across North America. Within 1 minute you get a result that has 99.7% sensitivity and 99.98% specificity. In cases where a positive is detected, it can be followed up with a more accurate lab-based blood test.

    Sexual and gender minorities are great advocates for making HIV testing faster, easier, and more reliable, so please keep your bigoted nonsense to yourself.