Geographic disparities in late HIV diagnoses in Tennessee: Opportunities for interventions in the rural Southeast.

Purpose: Incident HIV remains an important public health issue in the US South, the region leading the nation in HIV incidence, rural HIV cases, and HIV-related deaths. Late diagnoses drive incident HIV and understanding factors driving late diagnoses is critical for developing locally relevant HIV testing and prevention interventions, decreasing HIV transmission, and ending the HIV epidemic.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study utilizing Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) surveillance data and US Census Bureau data.

Misclassification of Loss to Care Among Persons With Human Immunodeficiency Virus: Improved Capture of Silent Transfers Through Surveillance Linkage Using Statewide Mandatorily Reported Laboratory Measures.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-positive individuals lost to follow-up from particular clinics may not be lost to care (LTC). After linking Vanderbilt's Comprehensive Care Clinic cohort to Tennessee's statewide HIV surveillance database, LTC decreased from 48.4% to 35.

Risk of HIV Diagnosis Following Bacterial Sexually Transmitted Infections in Tennessee, 2013-2017.

Background: Data on associations between sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and incident human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnoses beyond men who have sex with men (MSM) are lacking. Identifying STIs associated with greatest risk of incident HIV diagnosis could help better target HIV testing and prevention interventions.

Methods: The STI and HIV surveillance data from individuals 13 years or older in Tennessee from January 2013 to December 2017 were cross-matched.

Using an Established Outbreak Response Plan and Molecular Epidemiology Methods in an HIV Transmission Cluster Investigation, Tennessee, January-June 2017.

Introduction: In April 2017, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) was notified of an increase in the number of persons newly diagnosed with HIV in eastern Tennessee in the same month. Two were identified as persons with a history of injection drug use (IDU) and named each other as syringe-sharing partners, prompting an investigation into a possible HIV cluster among persons with a history of IDU.

Materials And Methods: TDH and public health staff members in eastern Tennessee collaborated to implement procedures outlined in TDH's HIV/hepatitis C virus (HCV) Outbreak Response Plan, including conducting enhanced interviewing and using a preestablished database for data collection and management.

Trends and Disparities in Mortality and Progression to AIDS in the Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy Era: Tennessee, 1996-2016.

To use statewide surveillance data to examine trends and disparities in mortality and progression from HIV to AIDS comprehensively in Tennessee over the past 20 years. Individuals diagnosed with HIV in Tennessee from 1996 to 2016 were identified through the Tennessee Department of Health Enhanced HIV/AIDS Reporting System. Clinical AIDS and all-cause mortality were the outcomes.