CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : CALIFORNIA : State Bans Use of Quick Test for AIDS

Expressing concern that a quick screening test for the AIDS virus is less accurate than the standard blood test, the state Department of Health Services has banned use of the test in California laboratories. A department spokesperson said there was no reason for laboratories to use the quick “latex agglutination” test, which provides results in five to 10 minutes, as opposed to the more reliable “ELISA” test, which provides results in several hours. All positive results must be confirmed by additional blood tests. The action was announced in a letter mailed Jan. 12 to clinical laboratories approved for AIDS antibody screening, blood banks and public health laboratories. There are no exact statistics on how many labs were using the quick screening test.