Duplicate reporting of AIDS cases between two neighbouring countries.

AIMS: To measure the extent and characteristics of cases of duplicate notification of diagnoses of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) between Australia and New Zealand.

METHODS

Cases of AIDS notified to the national AIDS registries in both Australia and New Zealand were identified, using date of birth and a name code. Cases determined to have been notified to both registries were analysed with respect to exposure category, country of birth and country of death.

RESULTS

Twenty-six cases of AIDS were determined to be common to both registries, representing 1.1% of cases notified to the Australian registry and 11.1% of cases notified to the New Zealand registry. Exposure to HIV was attributed to male homosexual contact for all cases, and a history of injecting drug use was reported more frequently to the Australian registry for the cases in common. For the majority of cases notified to both registries, country of birth was recorded as New Zealand. Deaths following AIDS were reported as occurring in both countries with equal frequency.