Not so fast

FAULTY AIDS test kits manufactured by
the Chicago-based Abbott laboratories
Incorporated, have forced thousands
of Europeans to face the anxiety of
undergoing the test all over again. The
company had withdrawn the test kit
from the market on March 25, following
at least four complaints of the test showing negative results in persons known to carry the AIDS virus.

Roughly 20,000 people in the UK and
50,000 in the Netherlands would have to
check themselves again. The British
National Health Service had been using
the test, IM HIV-one/HIV-two third
generation, for the past six months. The
health minister of Germany's state of
Hessen, Margarethe Nimsch, said that
apart from retesting the people, the
country's blood donor services would
have to examine the blood in the banks,
as 650,000 test kits had been sold in the
country.