La declaración de los nuevos diagnósticos de VIH en Cataluña: ¿es posible el consenso técnico?

Abstract

Most of the health care professionals surveyed expressed the need for notification of HIV infection, and for such notification to receive institutional endorsement. They also believed that, as with other diseases of individualized mandatory reporting, notification should be carried out with a single personal identifier. The information obtained from notification of HIV infection is essential for the optimal planning of preventive programs and the provision of health services. The main difficulties observed were that HIV infection has not been included among the diseases of mandatory reporting, as well as the low implantation of the PIC in the hospitals' clinical registries. All the sectors involved have an important role to play in creating the conditions necessary for the notification system of new cases of HIV infection to be feasible and useful.

Time series analysis comparing mandatory and voluntary notification of newly diagnosed HIV infections in a city with a concentrated epidemic

“…In Barcelona, AIDS has been a mandatory notified disease since 1986, and HIV was included in the registry as a voluntary notifiable disease only until 1996 [8]. During the HIV/AIDS epidemic there was, and continues to be, controversy over whether HIV infection should be notified.…”

“…During the HIV/AIDS epidemic there was, and continues to be, controversy over whether HIV infection should be notified. Following a long debate over many years, in 2010 Catalonia passed a law making a mandatory registry of HIV infection [8]. Such a mandatory registry permits better characterisation of the infection, avoidance of duplication, the study of sexual partners, effectiveness of therapy, and follow-up of cases of infection until the appearance of AIDS, or death [17].…”

“…Epidemiological surveillance has been carried out voluntarily, based on the notification of new diagnoses of HIV infection by the various Autonomous Communities [7] and among them, Catalonia, which began notification of new cases in January 2001. It should be taken into account that levels of under-reporting could be around 15 to 30% [8]. Moreover, voluntary notification systems cannot ensure the elimination of duplicates and there is no follow-up until the development of AIDS or death.…”