Reuters–along with many other news sites–parrots erroneous news release on HIV testing via USB stick

Does the story adequately discuss the costs of the intervention?

Not Satisfactory

The cost of either test in the study isn’t shared, and it’s a simple question to ask for a ballpark figure on what a mass-produced lab-on-a-chip might cost. Absent that number, a comprehensive HIV viral load test with traditional (and bulky) equipment is about $24.90 to $44.07. Such tests are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) 6 months after the start of anti-retroviral treatment, at 1 year, then every year after that.   

Does the story adequately quantify the benefits of the treatment/test/product/procedure?

Not Satisfactory

The story doesn’t correctly report the sensitivity of the lab-on-a-chip method, and an Imperial College London (ICL) news release (which the Reuters story seemed to rely on heavily) gets this wrong, too. The key thing each piece missed: There were two tests. The study used a scaled-up and better-understood test tube assay (which indicates a positive through a fluorescence reaction) to validate and compare to the lab-on-a-chip test (which uses acidity/pH). The researchers ran biological samples through each test to cross-reference them.

Here’s how the numbers break down: The tube assay was 95% sensitive (meaning it missed 5% of HIV-positive samples) when more than 1,000 copies of HIV-specific RNA were present per milliliter — a limit WHO says is an acceptable sensitivity. Between 50-1,000 copies, the tube assay dropped to 88.75% sensitivity. (We’ll note here that some lab-grade tests can detect 100 times fewer copies with close to 100% sensitivity.) The pH-based lab-on-a-chip test, meanwhile, was 88.8% sensitive at more than 1,000 copies and 76.1% with 50-1,000 copies. That’s a far cry from 95% accurate.

Does the story adequately explain/quantify the harms of the intervention?

Not Satisfactory

The physical harms are pretty obvious, as the story’s comparison to a diabetes blood sugar test makes clear: Patients need to get a spot of blood onto the sensor. But the more important harm isn’t discussed here, where a simple “this isn’t ready for the field” statement would have covered. More than 11 in 100 HIV-positive people getting a false-negative test is not very comforting; they could be misled to think their anti-retroviral therapy is still working when it might not be.

Does the story seem to grasp the quality of the evidence?

Not Satisfactory

As previously noted for our second criteria (quantifying benefits), the story didn’t correctly report the lab-on-a-chip’s “real-world” sensitivity, i.e. with human blood plasma. The assertion that 991 blood samples were run through the lab-on-a-chip test is wrong, too—only 164 were. The others were done with the non-electronic tube-based test. The two different tests aren’t mentioned, described, or distinguished in any way. It doesn’t appear the writer spoke with the researchers or read the abstract of the study, which summarizes all of these key points.

Does the story use independent sources and identify conflicts of interest?

Not Satisfactory

We did see any original quotes from an independent source, nor the study’s authors.

Does the story appear to rely solely or largely on a news release?

Not Satisfactory

Quotes were copy and pasted directly from the ICL press release, and we didn’t detect any signs of original reporting.   

From the news release:

“However, monitoring viral load is crucial to the success of HIV treatment. At the moment, testing often requires costly and complex equipment that can take a couple of days to produce a result. We have taken the job done by this equipment, which is the size of a large photocopier, and shrunk it down to a USB chip.”

And the Reuters news story:

“Monitoring viral load is crucial to the success of HIV treatment. At the moment, testing often requires costly and complex equipment that can take a couple of days to produce a result,” said Graham Cooke, who co-led the research from the Imperial’s department of medicine. “We have taken the job done by this equipment, which is the size of a large photocopier, and shrunk it down to a USB chip.”