WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) -- About a dozen U.S. cities and other jurisdictions face withdrawal of federal AID-HIV funding if they don't begin tracking patients by name.
The substitution of codes for names began two decades ago, when HIV infections were untreatable and such a diagnosis was highly stigmatizing, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Most jurisdictions have since switched from code-based HIV reporting systems to using names. A name-based tracking system is used almost exclusively across the nation for AIDS.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are urging all states, cities and other jurisdictions to begin using names for tracking or face losing their share of the $2.2 billion spent annually in federal AIDS grants.
HIV infection in people with no symptoms is the only reportable disease for which some U.S. health departments record cases using only codes, The Post said.
