Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) case reporting in the World Health Organization European Region in 2006

This article presents information on HIV and AIDS case reporting systems as part of a survey on HIV/AIDS surveillance practices in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region. A standardised questionnaire was sent to the 53 national correspondents of the European Centre for the Epidemiological Monitoring of AIDS (EuroHIV). The HIV and AIDS case reporting section of the questionnaire comprised four parts: data collection system, HIV/AIDS case definition for surveillance, variables collected, and evaluation of surveillance systems). Individual-based data collection systems for HIV case reports have been implemented in 43 of 44 countries in the WHO European Region and for AIDS case reports in all the countries. For HIV case reports, a coded identifier is used in 28 countries, and full names are used in 11 countries. The European AIDS case definition has been adopted in 35 countries (80%). Information on molecular epidemiology is available in 30 countries, and HIV drug resistance is monitored in 11 countries. HIV/AIDS case reporting systems have been evaluated for under-reporting in 17 countries and for completeness in 11 countries. This article outlines the future needs for HIV/AIDS surveillance and presents recommendations on how to improve data comparability across European countries in the WHO region.