THE CLASSIFICATION OF AIDS CASES - CONCORDANCE BETWEEN 2 AIDS SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS IN ITALY

This study assessed the concordance between the transmission classific ation of 725 acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) cases by the It alian AIDS Registry (the national surveillance system) and the classif ication of the same cases by the Italian Cooperative Group on AIDS-Rel ated Tumors. A high degree of concordance emerged for, intravenous dru g users in both sexes (kappa = 0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0. 84, 0.92), for homosexual men (kappa = 0.83; 95% CI = 0.79, 0.87), ari d for persons infected. through contaminated blood or blood derivative s (kappa = 1.00). The concordance was lower among heterosexual men (ka ppa = 0.51; 95% CI = 0.37, 0.65) and especially among men whose risk: group was not determined (kappa = 0.28; 95% CI = 0.12, 0.44). The disc repancies observed among heterosexual men indicate a need for continui ng and accurate monitoring of AIDS reporting by transmission category.