Interventions to Identify HIV-Positive People through Partner Counseling and Referral Services

Task Force Finding*

The Community Preventive Services Task Force therefore recommends the use of provider-referral partner notification—in which a healthcare provider or other public health professional contacts and notifies partners who have been identified by an infected individual—on the basis of sufficient evidence of effectiveness in increasing HIV testing and identification of previously undiagnosed HIV-positive individuals. The effectiveness of patient or contact referral could not be determined, because too few studies of adequate quality were available. No evidence of harms as a result of PCRS were found in the literature, but the paucity of evidence in this area requires continued attention to harms such as partner violence, both from clinical and research perspectives.

*From the following publication:

Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Recommendations for use of behavioral interventions to reduce the risk of sexual transmission of HIV among men who have sex with men. [PDF - 48KB] Am J Prev Med 2007;32 (4S):S36-7.

Review completed: February 2005