Contact Tracing for HIV Infection: Policy and Program Implication from a 50-State Survey

SUMMARY Contact tracing, the identification and active recruitment of non-self-presenting persons likely to be exposed to communicable disease, has been a major public health practice in the United States since the syphilis control programs of the 1940s. The nature of the AIDS epidemic, however, creates extraordinary difficulties for contact tracing programs attempting to reduce HIV infection. An analysis is here presented of the contact tracing strategies currently employed by the 50 States to combat the AIDS epidemic. Policy and programming implications are drawn from this 50-State survey, in an effort to adjust current contact tracing programs for HIV infection to improve their effectiveness.