Exactly 15 years ago today, on
April 8, 1990,
Ryan White died from complications due to HIV/AIDS. Ryan was a teenager from Kokomo, Indiana who was a hemophiliac who contracted HIV through exposure to blood products used to treat his condition. He was able to focus the nation's attention on the stigma that people with HIV/AIDS feel when in 1985 he was banned from attending his school at age 13 because members of the community worried that he would infect other students via the drinking fountain!
The Ryan White CARE Act is now the single most important piece of federal legislation which deals with the funding of HIV/AIDS in the United States. Although a call for its reauthorization was included in President Bush's 2005 State of the Union address the current legislation expires on September 30, 2005 and currently Bush's FY 2006 budget calls for flat funding in an area where the number of people infected (and affected) by HIV/AIDS is not constant, but increasing. There are an estimated 1 million HIV positive individuals in the United States, with up to 250 000 people not knowing their HIV status.