HIV REPORTABILITY USING NON NOMINAL IDENTIFIERS: DOES IT WORK?
D Spencer1, L Knowles1, C Williams1, Provincial Designated Nurses for HIV Reportability2 ¹British Columbia Centre for Disease Control; 2Heath Service Delivery Areas of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia Objective: To examine using non-nominal identifiers for HIV testing and reportability. Methods: In May 2003, HIV was added to the list of reportable diseases in British Columbia Changes to the existing HIV counseling guidelines were made and included: 1) advising all clients that HIV is now a reportable disease, 2) informing all clients that a non-nominal option (using initials or pseudonym) exists, and 3) partner follow-up could be provided by public health nurses, the healthcare provider or a combination of both regardless of whether the test was performed nominally or non-nominally. Public health nurses were identified in each Health Service Delivery area to assist in the reportability process. Results: Involvement of public health in the collection of epidemiological data
