J:!ounty of Santa Clara
Office of the Board of Supervisors
County Government Center. Ec1st Wing
70 West Hedding Street. I 0th Floor
San .Jose. California ~15 I I o
(4081 :wn-so40
Fax: (408) :wo-2038

TDD 993-8272

www.jimbcall.org

James T. Beall, Jr.
Supervisor r-ourth District

MEMORANDUM
To:

Pete Kutras
County Executive

From:

James T. Beall, Jr.
Supervisor, District 4
Blanca Alvarado
Supervisor, District 2

Date:

May 5, 2006

Subject:

Referral to Administration for a report back from the Public
Health Department regarding the incidence of HIV disease in
Santa Clara County.

Referral to Administration to direct the Department of Public Health to
report back on the documented incidence and projected incidence of HIV
disease in Santa Clara County, by year for the past five years, and to
provide an off-agenda report by Wednesday, May 17, 2006 to Board
offices.
This referral requires a timely response in order to provide Supervisors
Alvarado and Beall with pertinent information for a budget augmentation
request related to HIV testing, education, outreach and prevention.
Further, the report back to the Board of Supervisors should include the
impact of budget cuts on the County's HIV/AIDS Program in the last five
years, the rates of incidence of HIV in comparable populations outside the
County where testing has been readily available, the County's current
method of outreach to the most vulnerable populations and evidence of
HIV disease by age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and region of the
County.

Acid Free Paper

*

-~e

REASON FOR REFERRAL
There are reports of an increasing incidence of HIV transmission in Santa
Clara County among young people, ethnic communities and throughout
the general population. In some reports, the incidence of HIV "positive" test
results are greater than two to three times the percentage testing positive
at the County's one and only fixed-site test facility, the Crane Center on
Lenzen Avenue.
Epidemiologists, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the State
Office of Al OS have been concerned for years about the alarming increase
in the incidence of HIV in the general population. In Santa Clara County, if
fresh anecdotal evidence is correct, tens of thousands of people in
targeted community populations will test HIV-positive approximately five
percent of the time.
New and modern rapid-test technology has been approved and is now
available. Tens of thousands of HIV rapid-test kits can be delivered to
Santa Clara County at no cost from the federal government. Based on the
limited amount of HIV case data in Santa Clara County, and the anecdotal
evidence mentioned above, between 20 and 50 County residents will test
HIV-positive of every thousand rapid tests performed in target populations.
Based on statewide data of the reported number of people living with the
HIV disease compared to the number of reported deaths due to full-blown
AIDS, Santa Clara County is projected to have thousands of people living
with HIV who are unaware of their infection. HIV-positive individuals are
the vectors of transmission of HIV and are more likely to be spreading the
disease when they are unaware of their HIV status.
The report back from the Department of Public Health should address the
above concerns and assumptions about the incidence of HIV disease in
Santa Clara County with recommendations on how to curtail the spread of
HIV in the County population.