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Government recalls faulty HIV test kits

Taking a rapid HIV test during a mass testing drive at a market in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on 21 November 2008 Glenna Gordon/IRIN
    DAR ES SALAAM

    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.

    jk/kr

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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