HIV Fraud In India?
October 14th, 2007
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World Bank, after complaints launched by an Ohio based doctor is sending two consultants to India to evaluate HIV kits. It is being alleged that National AIDS control organization (NACO) is using substandard testing kits which give false-negative results,
The bank has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into India through programs intended to prevent the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS. Those efforts came under fresh scrutiny when Kunal Saha, an Ohio physician who traveled to India this year at the bank’s request, said he uncovered documents suggesting that defective tests had produced high numbers of false negative results. Indians given false results could expose others to HIV, Saha said.
The documents that Saha cited date from 2004 and 2005, but he said he saw suspect kits still on the shelves of Indian medical facilities six months ago. Indian authorities filed criminal charges last year against a company that distributed the HIV tests [link]
As the story points out, Dr Saha had accused doctors in Calcutta of criminal negligence leading to death of his wife. This website has more details about the particular case.
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5 Responses to “HIV Fraud In India?”
GB October 17th, 2007 at 3:15 am #
It is good news for people of India. The world bank should conduct an impartial & genuine inquiry on the HIV test kit procurement scam (by NACO) that is going on in India now.
Most important factor is that the WHO/UNAIDS strategies for HIV-screening is openly flouted. The tender document released by NACO to purchase HIV test kits is unscientific & vague . Both in ELISA & rapid-test segment, there is no mention that “state-of-art” kits should be quoted. This enables unscupulous suppliers to quote their outdated products (2nd generation tests) that give false negative results in early seroconversion sera.
Another factor that is fuelling the spread of AIDS in India is the fear of labs/doctors (both private & Govt.) to report a HIV-positive case. A HIV-positive case means extra work, extra problems and sometimes even harassment from patients, authorities & Govt. So its is safer to give false negative! No questions would be asked! If there is a transmission due to false negative, you can always say “the patient was in the window period during testing”!
With this message, I wish all the best to the consultants visiting India in their endevour.
Regards,
GB
Rohit October 17th, 2007 at 2:27 pm #
GB,
Thanks for your inputs. i wonder if anyone has done a study about it. If you know of any such study, do let me know.
Mike November 22nd, 2007 at 11:37 am #
Hi. I writing in regarding the scam of HIV Kits over the internet. I have come across these few websites which i believe is from the same person.
Be aware of
http://www.Private-HIV-Test.com
http://www.Home-Hiv-Test.info
http://www.hiv-home-test.info/
which believed to be using FDA approved Home Access test kit as a marketing tool to attract customers to buy their unapproved products.
If you go to their website, you can see Home access pictures are being displayed in their main page. They briefly describe the Home Access test kits as if they are selling it. If you go to their “Order” page, you can see they have different products for you to choose. There are kits as cheap as $19.00. If you go to http://www.homeaccess.com, which is the genuine site for home access, you could see the cheapest kit would be starting from $44.00.
They are abusing the FDA approved Home Access test kits as a scammy marketing tools. This act is dirty and unforgiven. Please spread the words around
john December 17th, 2007 at 7:19 am #
I konw is website hiv-home-test.info. their sales HIV Home Test Kit over two years. There and quality assurance. Does not mean that the poor quality of products.
I purchased three times and was very useful
Gary November 19th, 2008 at 11:42 pm #
http://www.hivtestkit.org
This is another one…the way their purchase page works is very odd. And all the domains are registered to people in china.
This is suspicious to say the least.