Washington Blade - December 2, 2005
Lou Chibbaro, Jr.

Terje Anderson, NAPWA's executive director, said it makes little difference whether states use a name reporting system or a unique identifier system because both systems by themselves fail to accurately measure the AIDS epidemic. This is so, he said, because at least 25 to 30 percent or more of the estimated 1.1 million Americans infected with HIV never get tested.

"HIV reporting does not measure how many people are infected with HIV or how many people recently become infected, it only tells us how many people have actually taken the test and tested positive," Anderson said in a commentary published on NAPWA's Web site.

"[T]he simple fact is that HIV reporting, either with names or codes, does not give us the information to understand the HIV epidemic or accurately target where resources are needed," he said.

Anderson criticized the CDC for discontinuing a statistical "sero-survey" system of estimating HIV rates among the population in the U.S. that it now uses in Africa and Asia. Under that system, samples of blood taken of people who go to hospitals, clinics or other medical facilities for purposes other than AIDS are taken over a period of time and tested for HIV. The samples are anonymous, with no records kept to identify the people whose blood is used other than their demographic information, such as their race, gender, or sexual orientation.

"This kind of representative, population-based sample of data is much more reliable and accurate than the extremely suspect data based on individual case reporting," Anderson said.

In a Nov. 17 news release about its latest findings based on names reporting data, the CDC acknowledged that such data is speculative at best because it could not be determined whether an increase in reported cases is due to a trend in the epidemic or to more people coming forward to get tested.

"It is important to remember that the number of new HIV diagnoses is influenced by both the underlying trends in new HIV infections as well as trends in HIV testing (i.e., an increase in testing by itself could result in more cases of HIV being diagnosed.)"

Anderson noted that the CDC stopped using the "sero-survey" system after members of Congress complained, among other things, that it involved using blood from newborn babies without informing their mothers. Then-Rep. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who has won election to the U.S. Senate, was the lead opponent and pressured the Clinton administration to "cave in" and eliminate the program, Anderson said.

Coburn could not be reached for comment by press time.

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