Scientists at Columbia University have invented a new dongle that attaches to a mobile phone and can diagnose HIV and syphilis in 15 minutes.
A new device has been invented that allows your phone to be used to "run an HIV test".
The
device invented by biomedical engineers at Columbia University makes it
possible for a smartphone to be used to test human blood for the virus
that causes AIDS or the bacteria that cause syphilis.
The
device is a dongle (something like a modem) with a lab on a chip. It
consists of a one-time-use cassette — which has tiny channels as thin as
a human hair — and a pump, which is operated by a mechanical button and
draws blood from an inlet through the channels.
After drawing the blood inside the device, it meets chemicals that react with markers for HIV and syphilis.
According to Samuel Sia,
an associate professor of biomedical engineering who led the red
research, the kind of test is called an enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assay (ELISA), and is considered one of the best methods for diagnosing
diseases.
The blood changes the colour and
denseness of the, then, LED lights shine through the mixture to a set of
photocells, which read the change in the colour and opacity and send
the data to the app. The whole process takes 15 minutes
The
dongle is connected to a smartphone by attaching it to the headphone
jack. It requires no separate batteries, while another app on the phone
reads the results.
The device requires little power because the pump is hand-activated.
The
person who wants to conduct the test presses a plunger to draw the
blood out of the body, while the current to run the LEDs comes from the
phone's audio signal.
The report of this device was published on Wednesday, February 4 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
The
idea for this device was gotten when the researchers were examining the
cost and difficulties in getting equipment for HIV testing to rural
areas and developing countries.
As smartphone
users in Africa have been projected to grow from 154 million to 204
million in 2015, the continent is a major focus market for this device
maker.
According to Samuel Sia, device should cost about $34 (N65, 000).
The device can also work with an iPod, the researchers noted.
The device has been tested at three clinics in Rwanda on 96 patients.
According
to the report, when looking to see whether patients were infected with
HIV or syphilis, the test was able to correctly identify an infection 92
to 100 percent of the time.
