More than 200 New Yorkers tested positive for HIV at city-run clinics -- but later were told the results were incorrect.
According to the New York Post, the Department of Health, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and test manufacturer OraSure Technologies are investigating why 213 people tested positive after taking a rapid mouth-swab HIV test from November 2007 to April 2008. A second test, which draws blood, was then administered to each patient. That's when they discovered they didn't really have the virus that causes AIDS.
"Nobody was misled or harmed," Dr. Susan Blank, assistant DOH commissioner and director of the bureau of STD control, told the Post.
The DOH is no longer using the OraSure rapid swab tests, and it has not yet explained why the tests were used even after the number of false positives continued to rise.
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