Electronic record linkage to identify deaths among persons with AIDS--District of Columbia, 2000-2005.

An estimated 1 million persons in the United States are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS); approximately 500,000 persons with AIDS have died since 1981. In 2005, the District of Columbia (DC) had an estimated adult AIDS prevalence rate of 2%, one of the highest AIDS prevalence rates in the United States. Accurate death ascertainment is an important part of HIV/AIDS surveillance. Manual methods can substantially underestimate deaths by missing death certificates that do not mention HIV infection or deaths of residents that occur in other states. CDC and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) recommend performing electronic record linkages to ascertain deaths annually as part of routine HIV/AIDS surveillance activities. In 2007, to identify all deaths that occurred during 2000-2005 among persons with AIDS who resided or received their diagnosis in DC, the HIV/AIDS Administration of the DC Department of Health, with assistance from CDC, performed an electronic record linkage. This report summarizes the results of that linkage, which determined that 54% of deaths among persons with AIDS had not been reported previously to the DC HIV/AIDS Reporting System (HARS). The results indicated that electronic record linkage for death ascertainment is necessary to more accurately estimate the prevalence of persons living with HIV/AIDS.