TANZANIA: Government recalls faulty HIV test kits
Photo: Glenna Gordon/IRIN
The UN World Health Organization has issued an alert on the test kit, which failed quality assurance tests (file photo)
DAR ES SALAAM, 6 January 2012 (PlusNews) - Tanzanian health authorities have announced the withdrawal of a South Korean HIV test kit from circulation following warnings about its poor quality.
In November, the UN World Health Organization removed the Standard Diagnostics Bioline® HIV 1/2 3.0 Rapid HIV Test Kit from its list of approved rapid test kits with immediate effect; the alert was issued after Bioline failed quality assurance tests.
The Tanzanian government has followed neighbouring
Kenya in issuing an immediate recall of all Bioline testing kits in the country.
"What we know so far is that 1,178 test kits have been used in the field, but we have yet to substantiate exactly how many of them were defective," Hadji Mponda, Tanzania's Health Minister, said at a news conference on 5 January.
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Theme (s): Education, Governance, HIV/AIDS (PlusNews), Prevention - PlusNews,
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]