A number of years ago I worked in development at Cambridge Biotech, which developed and manufactured a number of state of the art HIV test systems. One of our last products to be introduced was a 5-minute test for HIV that used a disposable slide and electronic battery operated reader. If the sample was positive a latex solution formed clumps as the sample flowed through capillary channels in a plastic slide. The results could be read visually or preferably, by the instrument which eliminated interpretation errors. A science magazine, New Scientist, had an article on the issues of routine HIV testing (July 22 2006 pages 8-9). The article included a picture labeled “testing in Africa needs to be backed by treatment” which is of an African reading one of the slides from our product. It is great that the product is still out there helping people.
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