New HIV test can provide diagnosis and viral load in one hour

Indian diagnostics firm, Molbio Diagnostics, has announced the launch of their Truenat RT-PCR test for the differential diagnosis of HIV-1 and HIV-2, Financial Express reports.

The device is a portable PCR platform with battery power and internet connectivity, which operating in real time can give both the results of HIV presence and viral load figures within 60 minutes.

Truenat runs on existing Truelab infrastructure and does not require additional set-up or equipment. The platform can currently test for 35 diseases, including COVID-19, tuberculosis, hepatitis, HPV, dengue and malaria.

“For any disease, early detection is always the key to stop its spread. HIV was first identified more than 50 years ago, and we don’t have a cure yet. So testing is the first step to preventing the further spread of the disease. We needed an effective means of testing at point-of-care, which is cost-effective and has a short sample-to-result time. We’ve achieved that with Truenat. Truenat HIV1/HIV2 can provide test results in an hour, assuring early and accurate diagnosis of the infection,” Dr. Chandrasekhar Nair, CTO and Director, Molbio Diagnostics.