One of the greatest barriers to eradicating HIV and AIDS, especially in the developing world, has been effective testing. Many who transmit the deadly disease simply don’t know they have it.
The Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP) aims to change that. The USAID Bureau for Global Health’s flagship program for maternal, neonatal and child health has released a small chip that uses optics to read fluids. It takes a single drop of blood and returns a positive or negative result for HIV/AIDS or syphilis, in about 15 minutes. And the results are presented, similar to a pregnancy test, so that anyone can understand what’s going on.
Published last week in Nature, the researchers academically state, “Overall, we demonstrate an integrated strategy for miniaturizing complex laboratory assays using microfluidics and nanoparticles to enable POC diagnostics and early detection of infectious diseases in remote settings.”
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Complete article at Digital Trends : http://bit.ly/qfpq3P
