HIV 'FALSE POSITIVE' TEST STRESS

By MELISSA KLEIN

Hundreds of people were incorrectly told they had tested positive for HIV at New York City STD clinics this winter.

Almost half the results given by the clinics were false positives, the Department of Health confirmed.

From November to April, 213 people tested positive after taking a rapid mouth-swab HIV test. A second test revealed they did not have the virus.

The city would not explain why, as false positives mounted, it continued to administer the tests.

The reason for the spike is under investigation by the DOH, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and test manufacturer OraSure Technologies. The DOH said it had stopped using OraSure's rapid swab tests.

DOH said anyone who received a positive result from the oral test was immediately given another test, this time using a finger stick to take blood.

"Nobody was misled or harmed," said Dr. Susan Blank, assistant DOH commissioner and director of the bureau of STD control.

The swab tests proved popular after they were introduced at city STD clinics in 2005. The number of people tested for HIV grew 24 percent that year.

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