title: Time to get involved, again.
abstract: The federal government's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States has improved greatly over the past 20 years although there are still many challenges. In the earliest years, it was often hard enough simply to have key policymakers utter the word "AIDS" and acknowledge that there was a problem. Driven by the devastation of a deadly epidemic and confronted with a lack of treatment options, people living with HIV/AIDS and their advocates took up the fight for a reasonable government response. At the same time, we were forced to develop an unprecedented community care structure. Federal advocacy focused with urgency on researcher and regulatory reforms and securing funding for research, care, treatment, prevention, and housing programs. At the same time, we had to fight many attempts at passing harmful or discriminatory legislation and to guarantee protection from institutional and private bias.
mesh_terms: D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D005380:Financing, Government; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D010344:Patient Advocacy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration