Abstract
Objective: The trends in the number of AIDS death cases reported to the HIV/AIDS surveillance were analyzed.
Materials & Methods: HIV/AIDS surveillance data were available from 1989 through 1998. We tried to link reported AIDS cases with reported death cases (key code: date of diagnosis of HIV/AIDS, sex, and nationality).
Results: The cumulative reported number of deaths among Japanese nationality and non-Japanese residents in Japan up to the end of 1998, was 466 and 106, respectively. The number of deaths reported had increased monotonically since 1989, and peaked in 1996, and since then began to decrease. The number of reported deaths in 1998, in particular, was reduced to about 62% compared with that in 1997. About 90% of all reported deaths were able to be linked individually. Upon examination of the year of death for the cases diagnosed as AIDS after 1989, it was suggested that some of the deaths might not be included in the surveillance report.
Conclusion: The trend in the number of reported AIDS deaths was shown. It was suggested that the rate reported to the Surveillance was not complete
