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| David Crowe, President Phone: +1-403-289-6609 Fax: +1-403-289-6658 Email: David.Crowe@aras.ab.ca |
Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4S6, Canada |
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Letter in The Globe and Mail Newspaper
“Dangerous False Positives”
July 17th, 2002
by Lisa Penney [not associated with the society]
Re: HIV Tests Urged for Pregnancies (July 15): There are a number of conditions other than HIV, including pregnancy itself, that can cause a woman to test positive to an HIV test. The fact that 90% of women testing positive were not in a high risk group gives weight to the possibility that many of these are false positives.
False positives are resulting in newborns being needlessly treated with AZT, a toxic drug that has caused ill health and death in children. A mother with a positive HIV result usually ends up not breastfeeding which can deprive her child of the immunity needed for life-long health.
Lisa Penney
Vancouver
Copyright © Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society,