Risk of Increasing the Sudden Diagnosis of AIDS in Japan during and after the COVID-19 Outbreak

Masamine Jimba; Motofumi Suzuki; Tadaichi Kitamura; Rogie Royce Carandang; Nancy L Sieber

doi:10.31662/jmaj.2021-0174

Risk of Increasing the Sudden Diagnosis of AIDS in Japan during and after the COVID-19 Outbreak

JMA J. 2022 Jan 17;5(1):104-106. doi: 10.31662/jmaj.2021-0174. Epub 2021 Dec 24.

Authors

Masamine Jimba¹, Motofumi Suzuki², Tadaichi Kitamura³, Rogie Royce Carandang¹, Nancy L Sieber⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Community and Global Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
² Department of Urology, Tokyo Metropolitan Bokutoh Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Department of Urology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, USA.

Abstract

Public health centers have played an important role in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in Japan. However, the staff members of 469 centers have been overwhelmed by the huge increase in workload, and some public health centers were obliged to temporarily stop regular HIV testing. With the halting of HIV testing during the COVID-19 crisis, the proportion of "Ikinari-AIDS" or a sudden diagnosis of AIDS without prior knowledge of the HIV infection status is expected to rise. To provide essential public health services, it is time for Japan to focus on delivering public health services beyond the existing public health centers.

Keywords: AIDS; COVID-19; HIV; Japan; health service.