Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Los Angeles Times (12.16.05) - Friday, December 16, 2005
Rong-Gong Lin II
"One of our biggest concerns is the public is going to lose confidence in HIV testing. We can't afford for that to happen," said Jim Key, a spokesperson for the center. "We're trying to make the public aware that there are very reliable tests to know their HIV status."
The center said it performs about 600 oral HIV tests per month and finds about 20 positive results. False positives were rare until November, when 13 people first tested positive with the oral test, then underwent confirmatory testing that found they were not HIV-infected.
Dr. Peter Kerndt, director of the county's STD program, disagreed with the center's decision. "I think the wrong thing to do here is to stop using the test," he said, noting the county has not found unusually high rates of false positives. He questioned the center's figures.
The University of California-San Francisco AIDS Health Project has also stopped using the rapid-result oral test.
Doug Michels, president of test-maker OraSure Technologies, said New York City has not dropped the test despite also reporting more false positives than expected. While taking the matter "very seriously," OraSure continues to have "extreme confidence in the reliability of the test," Michels said.
At New York's Gay Men's Health Crisis, Assistant Director Drew De Los Reyes said the agency will follow up positive oral test results with the rapid-result blood test, though he added it has not found any problems with the test.
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