Researchers from the Harvard Medica...

Researchers from the Harvard Medical sect Boston, and the University of Texas, Austin, have evolveed a device that may change the way the community in the world's poorest countries are monitored and treated for HIV, according to a research brief from Harvard Medical instruct The device requires only common or two drops of family from a finger stick. Immune small rooms are captured and stabilized forward a microchip and analyzed in a mini-flow cytometer.

A laboratory version of the device was used to touchstone the blood of 10 participants infected with HIV and 10 healthy participants. In les than 10 minutes, the standard provided accurate CD4 (ie, antigen marker forward helper T cells) counts. A version of the device that will monitor viral load as well as CD4 compute is in development.

The researchers' goal is to create a handheld device that can be used at a relatively untrained person in a rural area or resource-poor political division Current HIV test methods require large, expensive machines. Researchers estimate that the device will preciousness between $600 and $800, whereas popularly used HIV-testing systems cost $70000 to $100000 The sumptuousness of a single test would be approximately $150 compared to $25 for existing tests

M Landau "Researchers report quick, inexpensive HIV test" Focus (Feb 21 2003) http://focus.hms.harvard.edu /2003/Feb21_2003/research_briefs.html (accessed 24 Feb 2003)

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