Police agree to ditch HIV tests for recruits
Key points
- The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has decided to abandon "unnecessary" HIV antibody tests it had scheduled to perform on potential recruits over the weekend, police said Friday.
- MPD officials made the move after filing a report with the Metropolitan Public Safety Commission and holding discussions on the issue Friday.
- The decision follows a ruling handed down on May 28 that ordered police to pay 4.4 million yen in damages to a man who was subjected to an HIV test without his knowledge and then put under pressure to quit.
- The MPD is the only police department that has carried out HIV tests on male recruits in Japan.
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has decided to abandon "unnecessary" HIV antibody tests it had scheduled to perform on potential recruits over the weekend, police said Friday.
MPD officials made the move after filing a report with the Metropolitan Public Safety Commission and holding discussions on the issue Friday.
The decision follows a ruling handed down on May 28 that ordered police to pay 4.4 million yen in damages to a man who was subjected to an HIV test without his knowledge and then put under pressure to quit.
The MPD is the only police department that has carried out HIV tests on male recruits in Japan.
Police said that regardless of whether they would appeal the ruling or not, they had continued discussions on the HIV tests with the organizations involved.
For the time being they decided to abandon testing on Saturday and Sunday, but there is reportedly a possibility that all HIV tests during recruiting examinations will be stopped.
The MPD examinations for male recruits are held three times every year, and the secondary test of the first examination, which targets university graduates, will be held on Saturday and Sunday. Police had originally announced that an HIV blood test would be performed at this time.
The May 28 ruling on the man who left the MPD under pressure stated: "Just because a person is infected with HIV one cannot say that they are unfit to be a police officer, so the test is unnecessary." (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, June 6, 2003)
Content provided by ArmMed Media
Revision date: 12 December 2007
Last revised by Amalia K. Gagarina, M.S., R.D.
Written and revised by
Andrey Nailor, M.D.
Our doctors write and review articles for accuracy and keep them up to date.
health.am provides general information, not medical advice. Always consult a qualified health professional about your own health.
Explore health topics
More in this topic
Infections, HIV & STIs →
NewsCheaper group tests flag infectious HIV carriers
Health officials in North Carolina have found a cost-effective way to identify people whose infection with the AIDS virus is so recent that the standard screening test would not normally work. A new system pinpoints…
7 May 2005
NewsS. Africa tests Angola traveller for Marburg
South African health officials are performing tests for Marburg virus infection on a sick passenger who arrived on a plane from Angola, which is battling the worst ever outbreak of the lethal virus, officials said on…
21 April 2005
NewsU.S. starts human tests of avian flu vaccine
U.S. health officials said on Wednesday they have started human tests of a vaccine against avian flu, which experts believe could kill tens of millions of people if it becomes easily passed from person to person. The…
25 March 2005
