HIV-infected persons are often not yet aware

Partner Counseling and Referral
Services, Including Partner
Notification
HIV-infected persons are often not yet aware of their infection; thus, they cannot benefit from early medical evaluation and treatment and do not know that they may be transmitting HIV to others. Reaching such persons as early after infection as possible is important for their own health and is a critical strategy for reducing HIV transmission in the community. Furthermore, interviews of HIV-infected persons in various settings suggest that >70% are sexually active after receiving their diagnosis, and many have not told their partners about their infection (188). Partner counseling and referral services (PCRS), including partner notification, are intended to address these problems by 1) providing services to HIV-infected persons and their sex and needle-sharing partners so the partners can take steps to avoid becoming infected or, if already infected, to avoid infecting others and 2) helping infected partners gain earlier access to medical evaluation, treatment, and other services (Table 7). A key element of PCRS involves informing current partners (and past partners who may have been exposed) that a person who is HIV infected has identified them as a sex or needle-sharing partner and advising them to have HIV counseling and testing (235–238).
Informing partners of their exposure to HIV is confidential; i.e., partners are not told who reported their name or when the reported exposure occurred. It is voluntary in that the infected person decides which names to reveal to the interviewer. Studies have indicated that infected persons are more likely to name their close partners than their more casual partners (204,239,240). Limited reports of partner violence after notification suggest a need for caution, but such violence seems to be rare (241–2). When asked, 92% of notified partners reported that they believe the health department should continue partner notification services (243). No studies have directly shown that PCRS prevents disease in a community