"The drop in AIDS-related deaths is] great news for all Americans living with AIDS and those who love them."
—Donna E. Shalala, February 27, 1997

“The AIDS epidemic is not over.”
—Bill Clinton, February 27, 1997

In 1980 and 1981,doctors in Los Angeles and New York became alarmed about the possibility of a new disease when they noticed that some of their homosexual patients had contracted rare forms of cancer and pneumonia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified the new disease—now known as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)—in June 1981. AIDS is believed to be caused by HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, which is mainly transmitted in one of three ways: in semen during sexual intercourse, from mother to fetus during pregnancy or delivery, and by the use of a syringe infected with the virus. HIV invades a person’s white blood cells and...