Frequently Asked Questions and Responsible Responses

Why does AIDS have its own federal health care funding stream?

The Ryan White CARE Act was established in 1991 as a partnership between the federal government and local community health leaders to fortify the fight against AIDS in ways that meet the diverse needs of local communities. There is no single, uniform national approach to fighting AIDS. A local approach is the best national approach.

America's community-based AIDS service organizations are at the frontlines in the epidemic of this deadly and communicable disease. They are providing prevention information, testing, counseling and treatment that protect the health of everyone at risk for and living with HIV.

Why is spending per AIDS death higher than other diseases?

America should never pit the dying against the dying or the suffering against the suffering. Every year, 2 million people die from disease, more than all the wars in our history. We must make a great American war on disease -- all diseases -- a top national priority of the 21st century.

America's leading scientists all believe in continued investments in AIDS research. While AIDS deaths are dropping, more people are living with HIV today than ever before. Even worse, infection rates are so high in some parts of the developing world, AIDS threatens to bring down entire nations.

Everyone dreads the call from a loved one about a grandparent's colon cancer diagnosis. But nothing is worse than a seventeen-year-old son or daughter informing a parent about his or her infection with HIV.

I'm not homophobic and I have sympathy for those addicted to drugs. But why should we spend money on a disease that can be easily prevented if people just acted responsibly?

Young people make mistakes. Human beings make mistakes. No one deserves to pay for those mistakes with their lives. No one deserves AIDS.

Personal responsibility is an important part of our fight against AIDS but it doesn't occur in a vacuum.

We have a shared responsibility to make sure every American, especially our kids, knows the unvarnished truth about how HIV is spread and how they can protect themselves and others.

An HIV-positive student has enrolled at the local public school and now he wants to participate in sports. Isn't he putting other young people at risk for HIV?

Our young people are at risk for HIV -- at the rate of two new infections every hour. But infections aren't occurring on the softball field or the volleyball court. Focusing attention on settings where HIV is not being transmitted undermines efforts to stop transmission where it is occurring.

Local jurisdictions should be educating young people about activities that are affecting their generation at a rate of two infections an hour instead of spending time on activities that are not resulting in HIV infection.

A local man is accused of having unsafe sex with multiple partners. What can we do to stop this man? Shouldn't we enact laws to stop people like him?

Anyone who is HIV positive and willingly exposes someone else to HIV is acting irresponsibly and is already subject to prosecution under laws such as reckless endangerment.

Passing laws specifically designed to punish people with medical conditions like HIV disease is unnecessary and will only scare people at risk for HIV aware from testing, fueling new infections and worsening the epidemic.