Public Health
This metric represents the number of people newly diagnosed with HIV in San Francisco who achieve viral suppression within twelve months of their diagnosis. Achieving viral suppression is the ultimate outcome in the HIV treatment cascade and continuum of care for HIV, which starts with getting people diagnosed, linked to care, continuously engaged in medical care, and on an antiretroviral therapy regimen. Achieving and maintaining viral suppression is important because it leads to better health outcomes for the patient and reduces risk of HIV transmission by over 90 percent.
Percentage of People Living with HIV Achieving Viral Suppression
How Performance is Measured
All laboratories and testing facilities in San Francisco, both public and private, are mandated to report all HIV-related tests (including viral load and CD4 tests) to the San Francisco Department of Public Health. When a positive laboratory test is received, it is matched against data for San Francisco, California, and the nation to verify whether the laboratory result is from a person with a new or known HIV diagnosis. Subsequent laboratory tests are matched to the HIV case registry and updated in the HIV/AIDS reporting system. Medical care received outside of San Francisco may also be captured and updated in this reporting system by the State Office of AIDS. Viral suppression is defined as a viral load of less than 200 copies/ml at the patient's last viral load test.
Additional Information
Read more about HIV/AIDS in San Francisco.
Read more about the Getting to Zero San Francisco initiative.
Data
You can connect to the data behind this chart, as well as data for other Scorecard visualizations. Visit San Francisco’s open data portal to view or download the Scorecard Measures data set.