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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Increase linkage to HIV medical care — HIV‑04 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National HIV Surveillance System (NHSS), CDC/NCHHSTP

Baseline: 77.8 percent of persons aged 13 years and older with newly diagnosed HIV infection were linked to HIV medical care within 1 month of HIV diagnosis in 2017

Target: 95.0 percent

Numerator
Number of persons aged 13 years and over with newly diagnosed HIV infection during the calendar year who were linked to care within one month of HIV diagnosis as measured by greater than or equal to 1 CD4 or viral load test.
Denominator
Number of persons aged 13 years and over with newly diagnosed HIV infection during the calendar year.
Target-setting method
Maintain consistency with national programs, regulations, policies, or laws
Target-setting method justification
The target was selected to align with the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) Initiative, which seeks to reduce new HIV infections by 90 percent by 2030 by scaling up four evidence-based strategies- diagnose, treat, prevent, and respond. The linkage to care objective is related to the treat strategy, and the target is to increase to 95 percent. This target aligns with the 95-95-95 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) plan to accelerate action to end AIDS by 2030.

Methodology

Methodology notes

Linkage to HIV medical care within 1 month after HIV diagnosis was measured by documentation of ≥1 CD4 (count or percentage) or viral load tests performed ≤1 month after HIV diagnosis, including tests performed on the same date as the date of diagnosis. The number of states included for analysis may vary from year to year. Data for this indicator are limited to jurisdictions with complete reporting of CD4 and viral load test results to CDC. Forty-two (42) jurisdictions met criteria in 2017. Data from the 42 jurisdictions represent 89% of all persons >13 years living with diagnosed HIV infection at year-end 2016 in the United States and are therefore not representative of data on all persons living with diagnosed HIV infection in the United States.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Retained, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 with no change in measurement.