LOS ANGELES, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the nation’s largest AIDS group today applauded the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for its 4 to 1 vote early this afternoon in favor of switching the County’s Department of Health Services’ surveillance system for reporting HIV incidence in the county to a more efficient names-based reporting system. The move ultimately will require action by the legislature in Sacramento, as the issue technically falls under state jurisdiction; however, LA County’s vote today sends a strong message to legislators in Sacramento as well as AIDS advocates and legislators in other municipalities regarding the serious flaws in the present system that slows the accurate tracking of HIV case numbers in Los Angeles and throughout California. This inaccurate tracking of HIV case numbers consequently contributes to potential under-funding of the county and state’s HIV/AIDS care and services by federal funding sources such as the Ryan White Care Act and others.
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“We thank the Supervisors for their leadership in today’s vote to support the transition to a more efficient names-based reporting system for tracking HIV incidence in Los Angeles and the state of California,” said Terri Ford, AHF’s Director of Advocacy, who testified at the Supervisors’ meeting. “AHF has long supported a names-based reporting system as a prudent public health measure. Over the past two years, we have seen firsthand how cumbersome the unique identifier code system is, and we are now alarmed that it may also jeopardize potential federal funding for HIV prevention, care and services in LA County and in California. The present UI system is seriously flawed -- a names-based HIV reporting system would be a much better alternative for all concerned for better public health tracking and epidemiology.”
Since July 2002 when the CDC and federal statute first suggested that states begin tracking HIV incidence, California has used a so-called ‘unique identifier’ code-based system. At the time, 36 states, including other large states including New York and Texas, opted for a more straightforward names- based reporting system. California was one of only seven states that opted for the more cumbersome and inefficient ‘unique identifier’ code-based system.
As a result of this new tracking and according to Los Angeles County’s most recent ‘HIV/AIDS Semi-annual Surveillance Summary,’ [July 2004], the number of reported AIDS cases in Los Angeles County was found to have skyrocketed an astonishing 89% over the past two years. In 2001, there were 1,337 cases of AIDS reported in the County; by 2003, the number had risen to 2,532 reported AIDS cases. This imbalance in reported AIDS case numbers calls into question the overall public health tracking efforts by the County as well as recent-and future-federal funding appropriations for care and services in the County.
The increase in reported AIDS cases may, in part, reflect previous underreporting of AIDS cases during the many years that County officials were not required to report HIV incidence and infections to the state and CDC-only AIDS cases were reported and tracked. However, since July 2002, the County has tracked and reported HIV incidence via a so-called ‘unique-identifier’ [UI] code system which many AIDS advocates and County health officials now find cumbersome and flawed. While 36 other states opted for the more precise names-based HIV reporting system, California opted for the UI code to track its incidence of HIV. Of 80 diseases and conditions currently reportable in California, HIV is the only one not reportable via a names-based system.
The increase in reported AIDS cases uncovered by more aggressive tracking by county officials investigating HIV incidence suggest that at very least L.A. County has been seriously undercounting AIDS cases. And County officials note that they have so far only investigated 11,000 of the 23,000 cases of HIV reported since July 2002, so the 89% increase in reported AIDS cases may very well go up. However, in a cover letter accompanying the release of the ‘HIV/AIDS Semi-annual Surveillance Summary,’ in July, Douglas Frye, MD, Medical Director and Gordon Bunch, Director of the County’s HIV Epidemiology Program cautioned " ... no firm conclusions about whether the number of new AIDS diagnoses is increasing or decreasing can be made at this time.”
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CONTACT: Ged Kenslea, AHF Communications Director, +1-323-860-5225