IRELAND: 15 Percent of HIV Cases Not in Official Figures

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

IRELAND: 15 Percent of HIV Cases Not in Official Figures

Irish Times (Dublin) (12.11.08) - Monday, December 15, 2008
Eithne Donnellan

About 15 percent of HIV infections confirmed by the National Virus Reference Laboratory during the last five years were not included in official figures published by the Health Protection Surveillance Center, an NVRL official said at a recent meeting of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. There were 1,770 infections confirmed by NVRL during 2003- 2007, and about 260 of those cases did not make it into surveillance data, said Dr. Cillian de Gascun, a medical registrar with the laboratory. Reporting by physicians is voluntary, which might account for the discrepancy, he explained. Statutory notification is an important first step to managing Ireland's HIV epidemic, he said. "I think there is certainly enough evidence to suggest that the current system is not working as well as it could or should," he added.
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