

A $34 Smartphone Gadget That Can Detect HIV in 15 Minutes - dsr12
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/hiv-diagnostic-tool/

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olla
Its awesome, but it would probably add some awkwardness to making new
acquaintances at party. Hi, my name is ..., and I really like You. Do you mind
giving me a blood sample?

~~~
gus_massa
From: [http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/cheap-
smartpho...](http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/cheap-smartphone-
dongle-diagnoses-hiv-and-syphilis-15-minutes) HN discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9011783](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9011783)
(102 points. 4 days ago, 32 comments)

> _They found that the test rivaled gold standard lab tests and was able to
> correctly detect infections 92 to 100% of the time. Although it missed one
> case of syphilis and falsely diagnosed syphilis infections 14% of the time,
> the device is still extremely useful because false positives would be picked
> up later on after the patient is sent for further tests and treatment._

If you use it in a normal party (were I assume that less than the 1% have
syphilis) then more than the 90% of the detections will be false positive.
Good for amusement of everyone but the subject case :(.

It is only useful as a first screening test, take it only as a suggestion to
take a serious test.

