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.