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Accurate data are needed on adults and children diagnosed with HIV infection to facilitate estimation of the treatment and care burden, to plan for effective prevention and care interventions and assess care interventions. WHO therefore recommends that countries consider conducting reporting of newly diagnosed cases of HIV infection in adults and children. The requirements for the confidentiality and security of HIV surveillance data are the same as for AIDS-related reporting. Provider-initiated reporting will be required to increase the completeness, timeliness and efficiency of HIV case reporting. Laboratory-initiated reporting alone will be insufficient for reporting HIV, as other surveillance information from the health care provider or medical records will be required. For the purposes of HIV case definitions for reporting and surveillance, children are defined as younger than 15 years of age and adults as 15 years or older.
To facilitate the reporting of HIV infection, WHO recommends the following: HIV cases diagnosed and not previously reported in each country should be reported according to a standard national case definition. A case of HIV infection is defined as an individual with HIV infection irrespective of clinical stage (including severe or stage 4 clinical disease, also known as AIDS) confirmed by laboratory criteria according to country definitions and requirements. Countries should develop and regularly review their testing algorithms for diagnostic and surveillance purposes.i WHO provides a simplified HIV case definition designed for reporting and surveillance . HIV infection is diagnosed based on laboratory criteria. Clinically diagnosing suspected or probable HIV infection by diagnosing an AIDS-defining condition or HIV at any immunological stage in an adult or child requires confirmation of HIV infection by the best age-appropriate test. Further, as maternal HIV antibody transferred passively during pregnancy can persist for as long as 18 months among children born to mothers living with HIV, positive HIV antibody test results are difficult to interpret in younger children, and alternative methods of diagnosis are recommended.
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