<story><title>$1 chip tests for HIV in 15 minutes, fits in your wallet</title><url>http://www.fastcompany.com/1770850/the-10-cent-plastic-chip-that-quickly-detect-hiv-syphilis</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ikarous</author><text>I really doubt the &quot;no human interpretation&quot; part of the Engadget article. I&apos;ve been involved in HIV education as part of the gay community, and this sort of kit worries me greatly. If the test is an antibody based test, then it could do far more harm than good by giving uneducated users a false sense of security: a negative result does &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; mean that you don&apos;t have HIV.&lt;p&gt;While I&apos;m sure that everyone on HN understands the seroconversion window period, this is simply not the case in the larger community. Ignorance about HIV is widespread. I cannot even begin to count the number of people who believe that pulling out before ejaculating affords some sort of magical protection from the virus. These are the same people who upon seeing a negative result would assume that they&apos;re safe without condoms.&lt;p&gt;The CDC states that the window period for detectable HIV antibody formation is three months; however, this figure is based on first generation HIV tests and is considered somewhat conservative. Public health experts like H. Hunter Handsfield state that detectable antibodies usually form in four to six weeks.&lt;p&gt;Whatever figure you choose to believe, it&apos;s a pretty significant time period. And it&apos;s a &lt;i&gt;deadly&lt;/i&gt; one. It&apos;s during the window period that an HIV infected person is most infectious. Their viral loads are off the chart and they can unknowingly infect multiple people in a short period of time.&lt;p&gt;The &quot;cure&quot; for HIV is the same as it has always been: education and safer sex practices. HIV is largely a preventable disease. I would be okay with personal test kits if they were bundled with extremely clear educational packets printed in multiple languages. But this particular kit is advertised too much like a silver bullet to assure me that the manufacturers are anywhere near that responsible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Alex3917</author><text>&quot;HIV is largely a preventable disease.&quot;&lt;p&gt;Except when the government is responsible for spreading the disease. 50% of all new infections come from intravenous drug use, and an even larger percentage are secondary to drug users. If you&apos;re gay then it&apos;s not illegal to use condoms, but if you&apos;re a heroin user then you can literally get put in jail for trying to use clean needles.&lt;p&gt;What&apos;s more, many black communities in the US have higher HIV rates than sub-Saharan Africa. Why? Because so many black males are in prison that it completely changes the sexual dynamics for everyone left on the outside. And further, many of those in prison contract the virus and then end up spreading it throughout the larger community once they get released.</text></comment>
<story><title>$1 chip tests for HIV in 15 minutes, fits in your wallet</title><url>http://www.fastcompany.com/1770850/the-10-cent-plastic-chip-that-quickly-detect-hiv-syphilis</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ikarous</author><text>I really doubt the &quot;no human interpretation&quot; part of the Engadget article. I&apos;ve been involved in HIV education as part of the gay community, and this sort of kit worries me greatly. If the test is an antibody based test, then it could do far more harm than good by giving uneducated users a false sense of security: a negative result does &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; mean that you don&apos;t have HIV.&lt;p&gt;While I&apos;m sure that everyone on HN understands the seroconversion window period, this is simply not the case in the larger community. Ignorance about HIV is widespread. I cannot even begin to count the number of people who believe that pulling out before ejaculating affords some sort of magical protection from the virus. These are the same people who upon seeing a negative result would assume that they&apos;re safe without condoms.&lt;p&gt;The CDC states that the window period for detectable HIV antibody formation is three months; however, this figure is based on first generation HIV tests and is considered somewhat conservative. Public health experts like H. Hunter Handsfield state that detectable antibodies usually form in four to six weeks.&lt;p&gt;Whatever figure you choose to believe, it&apos;s a pretty significant time period. And it&apos;s a &lt;i&gt;deadly&lt;/i&gt; one. It&apos;s during the window period that an HIV infected person is most infectious. Their viral loads are off the chart and they can unknowingly infect multiple people in a short period of time.&lt;p&gt;The &quot;cure&quot; for HIV is the same as it has always been: education and safer sex practices. HIV is largely a preventable disease. I would be okay with personal test kits if they were bundled with extremely clear educational packets printed in multiple languages. But this particular kit is advertised too much like a silver bullet to assure me that the manufacturers are anywhere near that responsible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>carbocation</author><text>It&apos;s not good public health to deny information to everyone because some people will misuse said information.&lt;p&gt;While the linked rag&apos;s piece is sensationalized, the Nature Medicine article on this device is more useful. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.2408.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.2408....&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>