HIV/AIDS: Celebrating 40 Years of Science & Activism

President Joseph R. Biden commemorates 40 years of work to address HIV/AIDS.

Forty years ago today, five young men in Los Angeles, USA, were confirmed as the first known patients stricken with an illness that the world would later come to know as AIDS. In the decades since, more than 700,000 Americans and 32.7 million people worldwide have been lost to AIDS-related illnesses – a heartbreaking human toll that has disproportionately devastated LGBTQ+ communities, communities of color, and underserved and marginalized people around the world.

40 years after, the war against HIV/AIDS may be over in developed countries but not so in developing countries. GHEP is doing its part through our work advancing science and engaging researchers from across the global North and South to conduct meaningful research aimed at preventing the toll, salvaging human lives, communities and lives shattered.

Through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – and as the largest donor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria – the U.S. has invested more than $85 billion since 2002 to support HIV programs around the world. Read More

I Am a Long-term Survivor of HIV

“I keep asking myself: What does it mean to be a “long-term survivor” of HIV? My feelings, words, and thoughts have been telling me: It’s complex. I am grateful for surviving.”

Supporting Long-Term Survivors of HIV

“It’s been nearly 35 years since I was diagnosed with HIV. I was infected in 1981 or 1982 before we knew anything about HIV, or how to protect ourselves. When I tested HIV positive in 1988, I was told I had less than two years to live and to “go home and start making.”

40 Years of HIV Progress

On June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) described the first cases of rare pneumonia.