A national survey of postmortem human immunodeficiency virus testing by medical examiners and coroners.
This article reports on a survey of a stratified random sample of medicolegal offices in the United States to find the extent of their testing for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), using mailback questionnaires. Seventy-six percent (172) of the 225 offices queried responded. Estimates were made for the total population of medicolegal jurisdictions (U.S.A.). Testing in all autopsies was performed by 3% of the offices covering 11% of the population. Testing useful for surveillance was performed by 19% of the offices covering 47% of the population. Testing done for emergency responders' HIV exposure was performed by 35% of the offices covering 75% of the population. Diagnostic testing was performed by 54% of the offices covering 86% of the population. Forty percent of the offices covering 10% of the population did not test. The level of testing does not correlate with the jurisdiction's prevalence of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Of the population covered with surveillance testing, 19% neither directly nor indirectly had the results reported to their health departments.
Jason
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DR
Department of Pathology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157, USA.
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D003334:Coroners and Medical Examiners; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015528:HIV Seroprevalence / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology