CDC: most black HIV patients interviewed for partner services

(HealthDay)—More black index patients diagnosed with HIV are interviewed for partner services than all index patients combined, according to research published in the Feb. 1 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Shubha Rao, M.P.H., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues analyzed data from the National HIV Prevention Program Monitoring and Evaluation system for 2016 submitted by 59 health departments to examine use of HIV partner services.

The researchers found that 43 percent of the 49,266 index patients were black. More black index patients were interviewed for partner services than all index patients combined (76 versus 73 percent). Seventy-eight percent of the 11,088 black partners named by index patients were notified of their potential HIV exposure; 47 percent of those notified were tested for HIV infection. One in six of those tested (17 percent) received a new HIV diagnosis. Black partners who were gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (37 percent) and transgender persons (38 percent) had a particularly high prevalence of newly diagnosed HIV infection.

"Prevention efforts that promote HIV testing and consistently include partner services might increase early diagnosis and improve HIV-related health outcomes among blacks, particularly among black MSM and transgender persons," the authors write.

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