Exacto: a French lab launches a € 10 self-test to screen for AIDS

Alsatian researchers have created a self-test to detect the AIDS virus. 99.9% reliable, it costs only 10 € and could save lives.

It's a small revolution. This Thursday, July 5, 2018, researchers of the laboratory Biosynex in Strasbourg launch a self-test to detect the AIDS virus. It is called Exacto and costs only 10 €. Authorized since 2015, tests to do oneself often cost more than 25 € and are not necessarily accessible to the more modest. A box containing two tests (the price per unit is 5 €), Exacto is ideal for couples. " Only one in two people in the country knows of the existence of self-tests and 75,000 are sold each year, explained Oren Bitton commercial director, for Rue89. People need to know that it exists to trivialize the gesture, if the virus is detected early enough, it can now be cured, which we tend to forget ". Today, nearly 150,000 French people living with HIV and 25,000 to 30,000 of them do not know it. In the long term, the laboratory intends to market the product throughout Europe and hopes to develop it in Africa, where 26 million people are infected with HIV. They will have to do this, wait on the authorization of the World Health Organization .

How to use the test?
It's very simple. With the lancing device provided, make a slight pressure on the side of the finger. Then take the small drop of blood using the small pipette. Place the blood in a small box provided, reacting with two drops of product. The result appears after 10 minutes, on small colored bands. Be careful, this test must be carried out three months after the last risky report. If it is positive, you must go to your doctor to perform additional tests and receive the appropriate treatment.
It is available in pharmacies.