Diagnosis and reporting of HIV and AIDS in states with HIV/AIDS surveillance--United States, 1994-2000

Before advances in therapy, public health surveillance of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) provided reliable population-based information that represented trends in the incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. However, since 1996, highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has prolonged substantially the interval between the diagnosis of HIV infection and the development of AIDS, which has diminished the capacity of AIDS surveillance alone to monitor the underlying patterns of HIV transmission. As a result, CDC recommends that states conduct HIV-infection reporting in addition to AIDS surveillance. This report describes trends in newly diagnosed cases of HIV infection in 25 states that conducted name-based HIV/AIDS surveillance during 1994-2000. The findings indicate that the number of diagnosed HIV infections declined in these states during 1994-1997 and remained constant during 1998-2000. HIV/AIDS surveillance should be conducted by all states to fully characterize persons infected with HIV who need treatment and prevention services.