LETTERS: HIV test panic

Sir: On the day the BSE scare broke I had an urgent fax from the Chief Medical Officer, delivered late at night by taxi. A further fax followed a few days later. The news breaks today [5 April] that 20,000 HIV tests may be flawed. That's 20,000 worried people. Add their partners: 40,000 minimum. Nothing from the Department of Health, whose phone line is continually engaged. My local hospital knows nothing. The genito-urinary clinic is shut for the Easter weekend, as is the local public health laboratory. This is a real mess. We've been here before, with the contraceptive pill scare. Where's my fax, Dr Calman?

Dr Peter McColl

Sheffield