AIDS Test Withdrawal Worries Europe
Thousands of people across Europe who were cleared of having the virus that causes AIDS will face an anguished wait for new checks after a test kit that was found to be unreliable was withdrawn.
The British Department of Health said a “small proportion” of people who are HIV-positive were falsely given negative results in the test manufactured by Chicago-based drug company Abbott Laboratories Inc., and 20,000 would have to be retested.
A spokesman for Abbott Laboratories said it stopped selling the test on March 25 after at least four cases were reported in which the test showed negative readings for the antibodies in patients known to have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
About 2 million of the HIV tests have been sold worldwide since July 1995.
Germany said about 650,000 kits had been sold in the country, and the Italian Health Ministry ordered the tests seized from about 500 health centers. Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands also banned the test.
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