30 Years of Innovating Care, Optimizing Public Health, Ending the HIV Epidemic

HIV has taken an enormous toll since the first cases were reported in the United States in June 1981.1 An estimated 38,000 people were diagnosed with HIV in the United States in 2018, and an estimated 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV.2 Of those people, one in seven did not know they were infected.3

On August 18, 1990, Congress enacted the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act— the legislation that created the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program—to improve the quality and availability of HIV care and treatment for low-income people with HIV.

Early in the HIV epidemic, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program led on the frontlines in addressing the critical needs of people with HIV to reduce stigma and to train providers to deliver culturally-appropriate HIV care and treatment.

Today, HRSA’s Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program provides HIV care and treatment services to more than half a million people with HIV. The program remains committed to addressing health disparities in underserved communities and to ensuring access to and retention in quality, integrated care, and treatment services for all people with HIV.

We encourage you to explore the Living History website to discover the history of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and the incredible progress the program has made toward ending the HIV epidemic.