Validating Self-Reported HIV Status from STD Surveillance Network (SSuN) Enhanced Gonorrhea Interviews: Philadelphia, 2009-2013

Background: Since 2009, Philadelphia has been a recipient of SSuN cooperative agreement funding. SSuN interview questions include: “Have you ever been tested for HIV?” and “What was the result of your last HIV test?”. To identify persons who might have benefitted from partner services in addition to the enhanced surveillance interview, we compared self-reported HIV status to HIV surveillance data.

Methods: Selected GC cases were matched to HIV surveillance data (eHARS) by name and date of birth. HIV status at time of GC diagnosis from eHARS and self-reports from SSuN were compared.

Results: From July 2009 to August 2013, almost 30,000 GC cases were reported in Philadelphia with 2,817 (9%) completing the SSuN interview. Based on the GC SSuN—eHARS match 139 interviewed GC cases either self-reported as HIV positive or were identified in eHARS.  SSuN responses correlated with HIV surveillance data 98%:  HIV positive in both (N=99) and HIV negative/not in eHARS (N=2,678). Those with HIV in both systems were more likely to be older, male ,MSM, and previously diagnosed with GC than those who were reported being HIV negative and were not in eHARS (Age: 30 years versus 23 years; Male: 90% versus 48%; MSM/Males: 83% versus 21%; previous GC: 24% versus 13%). Of the 40 individuals with discordant results, 36 reported being HIV negative but were in eHARS and 4 said they were HIV positive but were not in eHARS.

Conclusions: According to our analysis, HIV positivity among SSuN interviewees was almost 5% (139/2,817). These persons are HIV infected and have had a recent gonorrhea infection, therefore, are candidates for partner services. The majority of responses to this question are valid, but further investigation is needed to understand the discordant responses.