Hundreds In New York Given Wrong HIV Test Result
June 23rd, 2008 | by admin |
It is being reported that hundreds of New Yorkers received inaccurate HIV test results from New York City health clinics.
As many as 213 people, who were tested between November of 07 and April 2008 were told that they were HIV positive only to find out later that they were not carrying the disease.
For the test, the people were given a mouth swab to test for the presence of the virus. The new rapid HIV swab test was developed by OraSure technologies.
All of the people were offered a blood test version following the discovery of the inaccurate testing, and according to Dr. Susan Blank, assistant DOH commissioner and director of the bureau of STD control, no harm was caused.
The swab test is no longer being used as a result of the inaccurate test results.
It is not yet known if any legal action will be taken by the people who were made to believe they had HIV.
