HIV Lab on a Chip- Diagnostic Breakthrough at Hand?

Source: BBC

Imagine a credit card sized lab kit that can accurately detect the presence of HIV or even syphilis from a small, point of care blood sample. Couple this with low cost and ease of use and a true diagnostic breakthrough may be at hand. 


Too good to be true? Perhaps not.


Published in Nature Medicine, the mChip has arrived.  You can also read about it on the BBC. The researchers tested prototypes of the credit card-sized lab-on-a-chip with hundreds of patients in Rwanda, reporting nearly 100 percent accuracy. With an estimated production cost of a dollar per unit, the mChip would be far cheaper to administer than current lab-based tests and it would allow rapid, simple testing right at the point of care (rather than requiring patients to go to a clinic or having to transport samples to a special lab).


One major hurdle in HIV control is identifying asymptomatic, infected patients. Once identified, these patients may be offered treatment and further educated about the risk of disease transmission. 


If a quick, accurate, simple and inexpensive diagnostic test were available, especially in resource poor settings, then a major advance may be imminent.