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HIV Sentinel Surveillance is an epidemiological tool by which samples of pre–designed size are collected over time, from among the identified risk groups known as sentinel groups. This sample size represents the larger group with similar risk and other characteristics.
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In HIV Sentinel Surveillance, unlinked anonymity means that the blood is primarily collected for some other purpose and the results are not linked to any individual. This methodology is adopted in order to minimise participation bias in the whole procedure.
• Is the HIV Sentinel Surveillance clinic based or community based?
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In order to minimise the selection bias of samples, consecutive sampling procedure is adopted and it is ideally a clinic based approach.
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Ans. HIV Sentinel Surveillance data is used to understand and monitor time trends, know HIV prevalence levels in various risk groups in states/UTs and work out total HIV burden in various sub–populations.
