All testing is strictly voluntary.
HIV test results are reported only for “confidential” – not “anonymous” – testing.
States began reporting on HIV in different years, and 16 states still do not report.

AIDS is reported when a person is diagnosed:

AIDS case reporting is mandatory throughout the U.S.
Reporting is based on medical diagnosis, so it doesn’t depend on people choosing to get tested.

HIV surveillance:

Strengths: Reports infection even when a person is in good health. HIV infection surveillance tells us more what’s happening as a result of current behaviors.

Cautions: Test results cannot be generalized – data from confidential test reporting cannot be assumed to represent those who have not been tested or those who test anonymously. Can’t compare nationwide, because not all states are reporting.

Public health strategies put more effort into increasing testing among demographic groups with higher infection rates.

AIDS surveillance:

Strengths: More reliably represents the occurrence of AIDS among the demographic group being reported. Can compare with other parts of the U.S.

Cautions: A person must receive medical care before a diagnosis can be made and the case reported. Reflects old behaviors since infection took place an average of 10 years before AIDS diagnosis. Because improvements in medical therapies slow the progression from HIV to AIDS, the rate of new AIDS cases can decrease while the rates of new HIV infections may stay the same or increase.

When reviewing or using HIV/AIDS data, be aware of these issues:

· Is this AIDS or HIV?

· Is this giving the number of cases or a population-based rate?

· Does this concern new cases (“incidence”) during a specified time period (usually a year) or ongoing cases (“prevalence,” the number of people living with HIV or AIDS)?

· What time-period is involved? Is it a single year, a trend over years, or is it cumulative?

· What is the geographic area being reported?

· What demographic groups are being reported? The data may include everyone, but HIV/AIDS data may be given that are specific to sub-populations by:

age
race-ethnicity
gender
exposure category (the risk behavior that may have caused infection)

· What is the information source?

Primary internet sources of surveillance data:

Broward Data from County Health Dept. http://browardchd.org/AIDS/Statistics.htm

Florida Data from Dept. of Health http://www.doh.state.fl.us/disease_ctrl/aids/trends/trends.html

Nationwide Data from the CDC http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/dhap.htm

International Data from UNAIDS http://www.unaids.org/sitemap/index.html