Is there a difference between positive HIV test reports and HIV incidence?
Yes. HIV incidence refers to the number of people who recently contracted HIV and is reported for a specific period of time – that is, the number of new HIV infections in that time period. Positive HIV test reports, on the other hand, are a reflection of the number of positive HIV tests that have been reported to public health authorities. They also apply to a specific period of time – that is, in documents produced by the Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control (CIDPC), positive HIV test reports include only those people who have been tested (positive) and, of those, only the people for whom a report was received at CIDPC. It is also important to note that positive HIV test reports refer to the time of diagnosis of HIV infection, not to the time of infection with HIV, which may have been much earlier. It is important not to confuse these two terms. HIV incidence refers to the number of new HIV infections per year. However, positive HIV test reports refer to the number of
