On Apr. 1, 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the  IV-infection surveillance case definition was expanded to include viral load test results. HIV ribonucleic acid (RNA) viral load reporting is critical in monitoring patients’ progression toward AIDS and response to HAART.

For public health purposes, viral load reporting is key to expanding surveillance of HIV-infection reporting and improving monitoring of the epidemic. Surveillance programs for HIV/AIDS in the United States, specifically states initiating HIV-infection reporting, will rely on laboratory viral load test reporting to identify prevalent HIV infections among persons who are in care and receiving routine viral load monitoring. Test-reporting standardization will facilitate progress toward electronic laboratory reporting, which is key to increasing efficiency among disease surveillance programs.

On November 30, 1999, CDC convened a working group of physicians and laboratorians experienced in HIV testing and representing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), and the College of American Pathologists to address standardization of laboratory reporting of HIV type 1 (HIV-1) viral load testing results.

The working group reviewed information regarding variations in test reporting and interkit variation of test results. At the conclusion of this meeting, the working group developed recommendations, which were discussed, refined, and endorsed at the annual Human Retrovirus and Hepatitis C Laboratory Testing Conference, held March 6–9, 2000, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and sponsored by APHL, with participation of representatives from public health, hospital, independent, and blood-collection–facility laboratories.

This report provides recommendations for standardizing viral load test reports from licensed laboratories to health-care providers and facilities and reporting HIV infection and AIDS cases for public health surveillance. These guidelines do not include a) recommendations for using viral load tests for clinical management, which are reported elsewhere; b) laboratory safety standards; c) specimen collection, transport, integrity, storage, processing, and analysis; d) data analysis, storage, and transmission; or quality assurance, which is also reported elsewhere.