In California and the rest of the United States, HIV infections and AIDS diagnoses are reported through a combination of passive and active surveillance. Passive surveillance is conducted through state required reporting of HIV and AIDS cases by health care providers and reporting of HIV-positive test results from laboratories to Local Health Departments (LHDs). Active surveillance is accomplished through routine visits by LHD staff to hospitals, physician offices, laboratories, counseling and testing (C&T) clinics, and outpatient clinics to ensure completeness, timeliness, and  accuracy of reported data. In California and other states, HIV/AIDS surveillance has historically relied  heavily upon local health department staff who perform:

• active case surveillance

• on-site chart reviews

• case report completion

To improve timeliness and completeness of reporting and ensure prompt identification and response to emerging problems in the field, California Department of Public Health, Center for Infectious Diseases, Office of AIDS (OA) supports a decentralized reporting system where HIV and AIDS case reports are identified through passive and active surveillance efforts coordinated by California’s 61 LHDs. HIV/AIDS surveillance case data, reported to local jurisdictions by health care providers and laboratories, is then sent to OA’s HIV/AIDS Surveillance Section. Surveillance Section then submits electronic HIV/AIDS case reports, without personal identifiers, to CDC.