New invention allows smartphones to be used for HIV test

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.