The digital portal “ El Comercio” analyzed the publication made by the digital media "La Posta". In Ecuador, the digital media website La Posta presented a report in which it reveals alleged irregularities in the purchase of HIV kits, delivered by the Ministry of Health, as part of the campaign against AIDS. Since 2017 USD $ 3 million were expended to provide the country with these fourth generation HIV detection kits. Under the title "Ministry of Death: HIV Kits", the media ensures that, in 2017, 36,000 of these tests were ordered. While, in 2018, many others. Both processes were around one and a half million dollars that were expended to reduce time of wait in the Public Health System and because their effectiveness would be such that a second test is not necessary. However an internal memorandum made in 2017 reported errors in the application of this method in Los Ríos, Bolívar, Santa Elena, Guayas and other general hospitals. As many false negative results in patients known to have HIV the Ministry of Public Health asked the Health Regulation and Control Agency (ARCSA) to establish whether it was an anomaly or not. After this, the digital media reported that 33% of these tests could not clearly identify the presence of HIV, 9% did so with results only visible under a microscope. The products were returned to the Korean supplier the media stated. In 2018, the MSP contracted, for USD $ 1.6 million, the same test, using international funds, delivering the 87,000 sets of the test. On this occasion, the Ministry decided to make new exams, before taking the product to the Public Health System. The results surpassed those of its predecessors. The error rate went up to 40% and not only gave false negatives, but also positive ones. Source: https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/ministerio-salud-pruebas-vih-ecuador.html