Ten-Minute Aids

For those who fear they may be infected with HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, the wait between taking a blood test and getting the results can be agonizing. The tests must be processed in a laboratory, and it can take days for a patient to find out if the deadly virus is spreading through his or her body. Last week, though, the FDA approved a new HIV test that gives results in just 10 minutes. It can be run in a doctor's office by someone with minimal training. All it takes is two test tubes, some chemicals, a medicine dropper and a blood sample (all but the last come packaged in a kit). If the solution turns blue, the blood has antibodies to HIV and thus has the virus as well. The test is more than 99% accurate, but for absolute certainty, a positive result has to be confirmed by a more elaborate lab test. That's also the case with conventional HIV exams -- as is the advice to be retested in six months: it can take that long after infection for antibodies to appear.