PARIS, Dec 27 (AFP) - Researchers working in Britain have developed a blood test that can tell doctors when the AIDS virus is hiding invisibly in the body and which could help save millions of lives.

The British journal Nature Medicine reported Monday that the new test means much more effective therapies can now be developed to combat the advance of HIV, the virus which leads to the usually fatal Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS.

Until now, blood tests were not able to detect the presence of the virus in organs such as the brain, eyes and testicles. Patients were told anti-retroviral drugs had successfully halted the virus when in fact it was continuing to replicate unseen.

But now a team of US and British researchers has identified an HIV "calling card" that shows the virus is present, though hidden.

The test works by tracking circles of viral DNA, the waste products of replication.

Dr Sunil Shaunak, of Hammersmith Hospital, London, who heads a team from the Imperial College School of Medicine, said the so-called circle test "should help to identify new therapies which will lead to total control of this virus within the body."

Lord Winston, director of research and development at Hammersmith, described the finding as "crucial" and said the finding "was destined to have international repercussions and benefit the millions of people living with HIV round the world."

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