How accurate are the national incidence and prevalence estimates of Canadians living with HIV infection?
The methods used to estimate HIV prevalence and incidence among Canadians make maximum use of a wide variety of data sources, including AIDS case reports, provincial HIV testing databases, population-based surveys, epidemiological studies, and census data. The estimates are inevitably imprecise, but using several methods of estimation in a combined approach improves their accuracy. The advantages of the approach are its flexibility, and its ability to incorporate new data and to highlight gaps in existing knowledge. The fact that the methods used to estimate national trends in HIV infection are largely determined by data collected from large cities is a limitation. These estimates may not therefore necessarily reflect local trends of HIV incidence and prevalence in Canada.
