Percentage of newly HIV diagnosed individuals linked to care within 30 days

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines linkage to care measure as the percentage of people receiving a diagnosis of HIV infection in a given calendar year who had one or more documented CD4 or viral load tests within 30 days of diagnosis. For this measure, the denominator is persons receiving a diagnosis of HIV in a measurement year, and the numerator is the number of persons linked to care within 30 days. The National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) 2025 on improving HIV-related health outcomes of people with HIV is to increase the proportion of persons newly diagnosed with HIV who are linked to care within one month to 95 percent from a 2017 baseline of 77.8%. In Pennsylvania, the proportion of individuals linked to care within 30 days of an HIV diagnosis has increased from 77.8% in 2017 to 82.2 % in 2021. At year-end 2021, the percentage linked to care was slightly below expected, which may be due to the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on HIV surveillance, prevention, and care activities. It is estimated that at year-end 2022 and 2023, respectively, approximately 84.3% and 85.6% of newly diagnosed individuals will be linked to care. By year-end 2025, we estimate that about 95% of all newly diagnosed individuals will be linked to care within 30 days of diagnosis, meeting the NHAS goal.