Larenzo Hopper

1. HIV/AIDS Surveillance Systems:
Are they implemented effectively?
LORENZO HOPPER
HIMA 5060
FINAL PROJECT

2. HIV/AIDs Epidemic
 First surfaced in United States in 1980s
 Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
 6th leading cause of death in United States
 Transmission occurs through:
 Blood (needle use)
 Vaginal secretions
 Breast milk
 Semen
 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV
 21% of these persons do not know they are infected
Source: CDC, 2012

3. Approaches to address HIV/AIDs Epidemic
 Obama Administration
 2010 - initiated a National HIV/AIDS Strategy that established
goals aimed at reducing HIV infection rates while increasing
access to treatment
 Center for Disease Control and Prevention
 The CDC works with community, state, national, and
international stakeholders in surveillance, research, and
evaluation activities
 Surveillance Systems
 Improving the surveillance of the disease may have a major
impact on the HIV/AIDs burden in America (Shortliffe, 2001)

4. Surveillance and Name Reporting
 HIV Surveillance
 Method of keeping a closer look at the activities of people and
monitoring their behavior
 Name Reporting
 Reporting the names of all those who test positive for HIV to
public health authorities
 AIDS
 listed as one of the notifiable diseases that state
epidemiologists and the CDC have determined is of national
significance and warrants routine, complete reporting.
Sources: Shortliffe, 2001

5. Benefits of Surveillance
 Benefits
 Provide periodic approximations of the incidence and
prevalence of diseases
 Information used to produce annual surveillance reports,
published by the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP).
 Due to the long incubation period of HIV, surveillance and
name reporting may be the only way to maximize the number
of people who qualify for a very high risk of contraction to get
tested as soon as possible

6. Benefits
 Benefits
 Information used to prevent transmission
 Give patients ability to seek new effective drug therapies
 Name reporting can enhance the current HIV surveillance
methodology while enhancing epidemiological data,
promoting rapid dissemination of new information to public
health professionals (Shortliffe, 2001).

7. Barriers to Data Collection
 Access to Care
 HIV Testing
 Underreporting
 Physicians
 Clinicians
 The CDC estimates that the completeness of case
reporting of HIV infection to be around 80%
currently (CDC, 2012).

8. Barriers
 Lack of awareness of the reporting requirement and
procedures for the provider
 Lack of motivation due to the extra work necessary
and poor system processes
 Ethical Issues
 Oppositions also exist for the general idea of name reporting of
HIV cases to government entities
 Confidentiality

9. NEDSS
 National Electronic Disease Surveillance System
 CDC uses in order to address changing information technology
capabilities for local, State, and national public health
surveillance.
 Works as a secure online infrastructure that provides
healthcare professionals and government agencies with the
opportunity to communicate about disease patterns and
coordinate national responses
 Not implemented across the United States
Source: NEDSS, 2007

10. References
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV/AIDS Statistics and Surveillance. Department of Health and Human Services.
Retrieved November 30, 2012.
Chin, J. 1990. Public Health surveillance of AIDS and HIV infections. Bull World Health Organ. 68(5): 529-536
Desai, D., Wu, G., Zaman, M.H. 2011. Tackling HIV through robust diagnostics in the developing world: current status and
future opportunities. Lab Chip, 11, 194-211
Ford, M.A., Spicer, C.M. 2012. Monitoring HIV Care in the United States: Indicators and Data Systems. ISBN 978-0-309-21850-
4
HIV Surveillance and Name Reporting: A Public Health Case for Protecting Civil Liberties. An American Civil Liberties Union
Report. October 1997
Institute of Medicine. Monitoring HIV Care in the United States: Indicators and Data Systems. 2012. Report Brief. National
Academy of Sciences
National Electronic Disease Surveillance System. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 2007, August. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/phin/library/phin_fact_sheets/111759_NEDSS.pdf
Pubmed Health. AIDS. A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
Roberts, L. 2012. HIV/AIDS in America. Introduction to Special Issue. Science 13 July 2012: 337:6091 p. 167
Savel, T.G., Foldy, S. 2012. The Role of Public Health Informatics in Enhancing Public Health Surveillance. Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report.
Schwarcz, L., Chen, M., Vittinghoff, E., Hsu, L., Schwarcz, S. 2012. Declining Incidence of AIDS-defining opportunistic illnesses:
results from 16 Years of population-based AIDS surveillance. AIDS
Shortliffe, E., Perreault, L.E., Wiederhold, G., Fagan, L.M. 2001. Medical Informatics: Computer Applications in Health Care
and Biomedicine. 2nd Edition. Springer. P 407