Malaysia to retest patients for HIV

Malaysia to retest patients for HIV

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Private blood screening centers in
Malaysia have been directed to retest patients for HIV after
U.S.-made testing kits were found to be defective, reports said
yesterday.

Although the government's 55 blood centers said they did not
use the faulty kits, tests performed by 26 private hospitals and
laboratories who had the kits are now suspect, the Health
Ministry said.

The Chicago-based Abbot Laboratories stopped selling is kits
last month after patients known to be infected with the Human
Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) tested negative.

"There were a maximum 8,000 tests that could have been carried
out at these private centers," Health Minister Chua Jui Meng was
quoted as saying by the New Straits Times daily.