Patients receive false positive HIV tests

NEW YORK, June 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Health has confirmed hundreds of people were falsely informed they tested positive for HIV at New York clinics.

Nearly half of the people tested received false positive results this past winter, the New York Post reported Sunday.

A total of 213 people from November to April received positive HIV mouth-swab test results, the newspaper reported.

Records indicate when the patients were tested for a second time, their results came back negative.

The Post reported the Health Department, federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and test manufacturer OraSure Technologies are investigating the sharp increase in false positive test results.

Health officials said patients given positive test findings were promptly tested a second time.

"Nobody was misled or harmed," Assistant Health Commissioner Dr. Susan Blank said.