Over a quarter of Canadians infected with HIV are unaware of it. But a new test hopes to change that. The new test is easy to do, the results are fast, and it could change the way people are tested everywhere.

The testing technology comes in the form of a simple kit.

"Inside 60 seconds you'll know if you're HIV positive or not," said Matthew Clayton of Biolytical Laboratories.

Traditional HIV testing requires a person to have a vial of blood taken, which is then sent to the provincial lab. It takes about 10 days to get the results.

With the rapid HIV test, you get the results in a minute.

"It's a very simple process of simply lancing the finger, taking a drop of blood, moving it through three bottles of re-agents inside our test kit," said Matthew Clayton of Biolytical Laboratories.

It's estimated that as many as 58,000 Canadians are infected with HIV.

What's even more alarming is more than a quarter of those infected don't know it. As a result, they are potentially spreading the disease.

The rapid test has proven to be 99.6 per cent accurate -- and is only available through health care professionals in Canada.

"I think it's really important to make the differential here, we are not advocating that this product goes to an individual who takes it home and tests themselves," said Clayton.

But others say that's exactly what should be happening. One of them is Dr. Julio Montaner of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV & AIDs.

"We should be making very aggressive campaigns using this rapid testing technology so that we can offer it in university, colleges, bath houses, in places where people at risk are gathering, so that people actually will have repeated offers to be tested for HIV," said Dr. Montaner.

And that's what they're doing in some U.S. cities.

Officials have taken oral rapid screening devices to the streets, testing everyone between the ages of 14 and 84.

And the Ontario government expanded its HIV testing program to use the rapid test in 24 sites across the province.

At this year's International Aids Conference in Mexico City, more delegates called on governments to cover the cost of rapid HIV testing.

"I think the status quo is not acceptable. We all recognize that there's a steady growth of the number of people infected with HIV, and at the end of the day we are going to bankrupt the system,'' said Dr. Montaner.

With a report by CTV British Columbia's Dr. Rhonda Low.