A national survey of postmortem human immunodeficiency virus testing by medical examiners and coroners

This article reports on a survey of a stratified random sample of medicolegal offices in the United States to find the extent of their testing for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), using mailback questionnaires. Seventy-six percent (172) of the 225 offices queried responded. Estimates were made for the total population of medicolegal jurisdictions (U.S.A.). Testing in all autopsies was performed by 3% of the offices covering 11% of the population. Testing useful for surveillance was performed by 19% of the offices covering 47% of the population. Testing done for emergency responders' HIV exposure was performed by 35% of the offices covering 75% of the population. Diagnostic testing was performed by 54% of the offices covering 86% of the population. Forty percent of the offices covering 10% of the population did not test. The level of testing does not correlate with the jurisdiction's prevalence of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Of the population covered with surveillance testing, 19% neither directly nor indirectly had the results reported to their health departments.