⚠ Data for the years 2021 & 2022 are preliminary. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, data for the year 2020 should be interpreted with caution.
COVID-19 disruptions in HIV diagnosis, care and reporting of deaths during 2020 have also made incidence, prevalence, and knowledge of status estimates derived from a CD4-based model, unreliable. Therefore, a 2020 edition of the HIV Surveillance Supplemental Report “Estimated HIV Incidence and Prevalence in the U.S.”, which provides data on estimated incidence, prevalence, and knowledge of status in the U.S., was not published by CDC.

Linkage to Care | AHEAD

Glossary

Learn more about the terminology used in the Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America initiative.

Click on a term to view its definition.

Linkage to care

Linkage to care refers to having accessed medical care for HIV infection after being diagnosed. This is a crucial early step in successful HIV treatment because this enables a person with HIV infection to see a medical provider who can check the person’s health and prescribe the antiretroviral therapy needed for viral suppression. The more quickly individuals with HIV can be linked into medical care after diagnosis, the greater the impact medical care can have in keeping them healthy and in limiting the spread of HIV, through viral suppression.

Formula for the Linkage to Care indicator