Clicks under fire after faulty pregnancy tests reveal false positive results

It has been found that Clicks is selling a home pregnancy test that gives false positives. In testing conducted by Business Insider South Africa, the Clicks digital pregnancy test constantly gave the result “pregnant” when exposed to ordinary tap water.

ALSO READ: More than 35 pupils pregnant at a Limpopo school, 31 living with HIV

In a statement, Clicks has since said it was withdrawing the products from its shelves.

“As a responsible health retailer, we take the well-being of our customers extremely seriously,” the retailer said.

It has also reportedly been revealed that the pregnancy tests supposedly created by Clicks are in fact manufactured in China by Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech. However, this means that the manufacturer is legally required to reveal its name on the packaging, and it is unclear why this did not occur.

When posed questions about the tests, such as who the actual manufacturers are, and whether its packaging was misleading, Clicks refused to answer. The supposed manufacturer of the tests, Humor Diagnostica, a South African supplier of a wide range of tests, also failed to provide reasons as to why it was listed as the manufacturer when in fact it simply took the tests and placed them in Clicks packaging.

In the search to locate the actual manufacturer, Business Insider UK revealed that thousands of pregnancy tests were also recalled because of false positive results. These tests, called Clear & Simple brand digital pregnancy tests, is also manufactured by Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech and sold in the UK, according to a statement from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

 The article added that false positive pregnancy tests are generally quite rare and that a positive result usually means a woman is pregnant. In fact, false negatives are reportedly more common than false positive results.