A controlled study of the effectiveness of public health HIV partner notification services.

Health departments inconsistently provide partner notification services to persons with HIV. We surveyed a randomly selected sample of 370 patients at the largest HIV clinic in Washington State, USA, using a self-administered anonymous questionnaire. Patients who reported talking to health department staff about partner notification were more likely to report notifying at least one sex partner following their HIV diagnosis than patients who did not talk to health department staff (68 vs. 45%, odds ratio = 2.5, 95% confidence interval = 1.6-3.9).