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Ascertaining exposure categories of HIV‐infected individuals with previously unrecorded risk data
Author(s) -
Stevenson Elaine M,
Thompson Sandra C,
Crofts Nick
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1995.tb126116.x
Subject(s) - human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , medicine , transmission (telecommunications) , data quality , medical record , environmental health , demography , family medicine , database , surgery , computer science , sociology , telecommunications , metric (unit) , operations management , economics
Objectives To improve the quality of surveillance data for HIV in Victoria by following up all cases with an unknown exposure category; and to determine whether those with no exposure category included cases of transmission other than via the conventionally recognised routes. Methods The Victorian HIV database records data on all people diagnosed with HIV in Victoria, including information on route of exposure to the virus. We identified all HIV diagnoses to which no exposure category had been attributed and, with the permission of the State Minister for Health, obtained access to namecoded testing records. Exposure categories, where possible, were obtained directly from these records. Otherwise, cases were checked against the namecoded AIDS database and, if necessary, an intensive process of call‐back to laboratories, diagnosing doctors and HIV treatment centres was undertaken. Results The database initially contained records for 289 people with unknown exposure categories (9.1% of Victorian people with HIV infection). We identified exposure categories for 155 of these people. Conclusions Exposure categories for those cases previously without data were similar to those for cases where exposure category was known. No instances of HIV transmission by previously unrecognised means were detected.