Laboratory-based reporting of AIDS.

To improve the speed and completeness of AIDS reporting, the Philadelphia Board of Health adopted regulations requiring medical laboratories to report directly to the Department of Public Health all results indicative of AIDS-defining diagnoses. Reports were used to focus active AIDS surveillance on physicians who had requested laboratory reports whose results were likely to have diagnosed AIDS recently. One year after implementation, laboratories provided the first lead to 20% of all AIDS reports. Reports originating with laboratories reach our data base sooner after diagnosis and ascertain a slightly higher proportion of women than do other reports. Laboratory-based reporting offers a practical way to focus the limited resources available for active surveillance on health providers likely to have an AIDS diagnosis to report.