Reports on HIV/AIDS: 1990

MARCH 9, 1990, MMWR, Vol. 39, No. 9, pp. 137-140
Publicly Funded HIV Counseling and Testing - United States, 1985-1989
CDC provides support to 63 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention
programs through health departments in 50 states, four cities, seven territories, the
District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Each calendar quarter, the 63 programs report
to CDC aggregate data regarding the number of 1) pretest counseling sessions,
HIV-antibody tests, positive tests, and post-test counseling sessions, by type of
testing site; 2) HIV-antibody tests and positive tests, by risk exposure category; and
3) HIV-antibody tests and positive tests, by age group, sex, and race/ethnicity.
From 1985 through 1989,* the programs performed approximately 2.5 million
HIV-antibody tests; 149,639 (6.0%) tests were positive. This report summarizes
demographic, risk, and site type data from the 63 programs from January 1988
through September 1989.
Number and Type of Testing Sites
From January 1988 through September 1989, the number of counseling and
testing sites in the 63 programs increased from 1577 to 5013. In 1989, these included
1297 (25.9%) freestanding HIV counseling and testing sites, 877 (17.5%) sexually
transmitted diseases (STD) clinics, 633 (12.6%) family-planning clinics, 522 (10.4%)
other health department sites, 504 (10.1%) prenatal/obstetric clinics, 443 (8.8%)
tuberculosis clinics, 183 (3.7%) private physicians' offices and clinics, 173 (3.5%)
drug-treatment centers, 162 (3.2%) other nonhealth department testing sites, 109
(2.2%) prisons, 29 (0.6%) colleges, and 81 (1.6%) unclassified facilities.
Characteristics of Counseling and Testing Sites
From January 1988 through September 1989, the 63 programs reported 1,403,240
HIV-antibody tests and 64,347 positive tests (Table 1). Of these, freestanding HIV
counseling and testing sites and STD clinics together accounted for 916,290 (65.3%)
of all tests and 44,425 (69.0%) of all positive tests. Family planning and prenatal/
obstetric clinics accounted for 8.1% of all reported tests and 1.3% of positive tests. In
contrast, drug-treatment centers and prisons accounted for 5.3% of total tests and
7.1% of positive tests.
Risk Category and Demographic Data
Information on self-reported risk category was available for 1,040,392 reported
tests (Table 2). Of these, seropositivity rates were highest for homosexual/bisexual
intravenous-drug users (IVDUs) (17.1%), homosexual/bisexual males (16.5%), persons with hemophilia (14.0%), and heterosexual IVDUs (11.6%). These four categories
accounted for 24.4% of tests from persons who reported their risk category and 70.6%
of all positive tests from the same population.
Two groups accounted for 72.9% of tests with a self-reported risk category:
1) 456,188 (43.9%) were from persons categorized as "heterosexuals with reported
risk" (including heterosexuals whose sex partners are at risk for or infected with HIV,
heterosexuals with multiple sex partners, and heterosexuals with any other factor
considered by local health authorities to pose a risk for HIV infection); and 2) 302,005
(29.0%) were from persons classified as "other heterosexual" (primarily heterosexual
*Estimated 12-month total for 1989 based on adjustment of data received for January through
September.

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