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Analysis finds AIDS-related deaths in Washington, D.C. underreported by more than half

A recent analysis conducted by Washington D.C.’s Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which indicates that more than half of the AIDS-related deaths that occurred in the district from 2000 to 2005 were overlooked by the city’s system for reporting such deaths, has been published in the CDC’s MMWR.

The initial investigation was launched when boxes of unexamined paper records were discovered, prompting concern from D.C. health officials that the number of people living with HIV and dying of complications with AIDS in the district might have been significantly underreported. The analysis found that of the 2,460 deaths resulting from AIDS-related illnesses that occurred in the district between 2000 and 2005, 1,337 had not been reported.

“[This] tells us our surveillance system wasn’t complete enough,” said Shannon Hader, senior deputy of the health department’s HIV/AIDS Administration. “We’re clearly underreporting.”

Hader added that, in response to these findings, the district is initiating several efforts to improve its reporting system. Efforts include a mass mailing in January to roughly 4,000 physicians and laboratories, with hopes of increasing the number of diagnoses reported. Routine reviews of death records are also being conducted, in addition to the launch of a new campaign that is designed to get more people tested and into treatment.

“What we need to do is get more people who don’t know they have HIV diagnosed and into care and treatment,” said Hader.