About the EHE Indicators: Knowledge of Status

There are six EHE indicators: HIV incidence, knowledge of HIV status, diagnoses, linkage to HIV medical care, HIV viral suppression, and PrEP coverage.

Each indicator was chosen with specific public health goals in mind and in line with the four key strategies of the initiative: diagnose, prevent, treat and respond. Incidence measures our overarching goal of reducing new infections by 90% by 2030. Diagnoses, and Knowledge of Status are all key to identifying which individuals need to be linked to care, and represent important steps on the HIV Care Continuum. Data have shown that upon diagnosis, immediate linkage to care and treatment results in improved HIV outcomes, so it is important to track how these indicators change over time. Viral Suppression and PrEP use will have the greatest impact on reducing new transmissions if they are scaled up.

Explore HIV indicator data on the AHEAD dashboard.

What Is Knowledge of Status?

Knowledge of status is an estimate of the number or percentage of people with HIV who have been tested and received an HIV diagnosis within a given year.

The EHE knowledge of status goal is to increase knowledge of status to 95% from the 2017 baseline of 85.8%. Increasing the percentage of people with HIV who have received an HIV diagnosis and are aware of their infection is a key objective to reaching the goal of ending the HIV epidemic because according to CDC estimates, about 46% of new HIV infections are transmitted by people who are unaware they have HIV.^[4]

An HIV diagnosis is a necessary first step in getting HIV care and treatment, which protects the health of someone with HIV and prevents transmission. People with HIV who take HIV medicine (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load—a very low level of HIV in the blood—can live long and healthy lives and will not transmit HIV to their HIV-negative partners through sex.

As recommended by CDC, testing everyone aged 13 to 64 years for HIV at least once in their lifetime and testing people at higher risk for HIV at least once a year can lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment.

Uses of Knowledge of Status Data

Knowledge of status estimates are useful at the local, state, and national levels to monitor trends and tailor HIV testing services, among other things.

How Are Knowledge of Status Estimates Determined?

Knowledge of HIV status is estimated as the percentage of people with HIV who have received a diagnosis and is calculated by dividing the estimated number of people living with diagnosed HIV by the estimated total HIV prevalence (diagnosed and undiagnosed cases) for each year. Estimates are derived by using CDC HIV surveillance data for persons aged ≥13 years at the time of diagnosis.

About Knowledge of Status Data

Relative standard errors (RSEs) were calculated for estimates of incidence, prevalence, and percentage of persons living with diagnosed HIV infection and were used to determine the reliability of estimates. Estimates with a RSE of <30% meet the standard of reliability and are displayed. Estimates with a RSE of 30%-50% meet a lower standard of reliability and are displayed but should be interpreted with caution. Estimates with a RSE of >50% are statistically unreliable and not displayed.

To reflect model uncertainty, all estimates were rounded to the nearest 100 for estimates of more than 1,000 and to the nearest 10 for estimates of less than or equal to 1,000.

Estimates should be interpreted with caution for jurisdictions that do not have laws requiring complete reporting of laboratory data or that have incomplete reporting. Areas without laws: Idaho. Areas with incomplete reporting in 2022: New Jersey and Puerto Rico. Areas with a lapse in reporting in 2022: Mississippi and West Virginia.

Estimates should be interpreted with caution due to incomplete ascertainment of deaths that occurred during 2022. Areas with incomplete ascertainment of deaths: Mississippi, South Carolina, and Utah.

Please be advised that data on knowledge of status include data for years 2017-2022 only. As a result of a 2025 reduction in force within CDC's Division of HIV Prevention (DHP), the branch responsible for producing national HIV incidence and prevalence estimates was affected. Due to this, updated HIV incidence and prevalence data through 2023 are not currently available.

Data Sources

1. HIV Surveillance Data Tables, 2024; 5(1)

   See Full Citation

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Core indicators for monitoring the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative: National HIV Surveillance System data reported through December 2023. HIV Surveillance Data Tables, 2024; 5(1). https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/156512. Published May 2024. Accessed May 21, 2024.

Copy
2. Estimated HIV Incidence and Prevalence, 2024; 29(1)

   See Full Citation

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Estimated HIV incidence and prevalence in the United States, 2018-2022. HIV Surveillance Supplemental Report, 2024; 29(1). https://www.cdc.gov/hiv-data/nhss/estimated-hiv-incidence-and-prevalence.html. Published May 2024. Accessed May 21, 2024.

Copy
3. HIV Surveillance Data Tables (early release), 2020; 1(1)

   See Full Citation

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Core indicators for Monitoring the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative (Data reported through December 2019). HIV Surveillance Data Tables (early release), 2020; 1(1). https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/149334. Published March 2020. Accessed March 2, 2026.

Copy
4. Updates to HIV transmission rate estimates along the HIV care continuum in the United States, 2019

   See Full Citation

Baxter A, Gopalappa C, Hafizul Islam M, et al. Updates to HIV transmission rate estimates along the HIV care continuum in the United States, 2019. JAIDS 2025;99(1):47-54. doi:10.1097/QAI.0000000000003623

Copy