National Situation

Mandatory reporting of AIDS cases has been in place in France since 1986. It is based on the clinician’s reporting of any patient presenting with an initial AIDS-defining condition according to a European definition. Mandatory reporting of HIV infection cases, for its part, has been in place since 2003 and is based on the anonymous reporting by laboratory technicians of “any HIV serology test confirmed positive for the first time in their laboratory, even if the second sample required to validate the seropositivity could not be obtained and even if a serology test had previously been performed for the same person in another laboratory.” The clinician who ordered the serology test and/or is treating the patient completes the medical section of the report and submits the entire document to the medical inspector at the Regional Health Agency (ARS).