HIV Update: A USB Stick That Diagnoses In Just 30 Minutes? No, This Is Not A Hoax

A team of researchers has developed a potentially revolutionary HIV testing kit that can significantly speed up diagnosis of the disease in addition to allowing patients to monitor their own treatment.

The study saw two groups of scientists from Imperial College London and DNA Electronics collaborating to create a USB stick that can analyze blood to detect traces of the HIV virus. Users can use the device themselves -- all they will require doing is feed it a drop of their blood.

The initial research, published in Scientific Reports, states that if the HIV virus is present in the user's blood, the acidity of the sample will undergo a change which, in turn, will trigger an electrical signal readable by computers or handheld devices.

The study claims a high-accuracy of 95 percent with the 991 blood samples tested during the trial.

The new technology also significantly lowers the time taken by HIV tests. According to De Zeen, compared to the time taken by HIV tests based on current technology -- three days to be precise -- the USB stick can detect the virus in just 30 minutes or less.

Also, because the device is portable, it is possible for users to regularly monitor the virus levels in their bloodstream, thus allowing experts to timely determine if the drugs have built a drug-resistance already.

Worth noting, while modern drugs have proved themselves quite effective in reducing virus levels in patients' bloodstream to near zero, in some cases, the drugs stop working after a period as the virus builds a stronger immunity.

"Monitoring viral load is crucial to the success of HIV treatment. At the moment, testing often requires costly and complex equipment that can take a couple of days to produce a result," said Graham Cooke, who co-led the research from the Imperial's department of medicine, Japan Today reports.

"We have taken the job done by this equipment, which is the size of a large photocopier, and shrunk it down to a USB chip."