2003

During his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush announces his Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a five-year, $15 billion initiative to fight HIV/AIDS, primarily in Africa and the Caribbean.

AIDSVAX, an experimental AIDS vaccine, fails to block HIV infection among the more than 2,000 intravenous drug users who volunteered for the first large-scale clinical trial of an AIDS vaccine.

T-20, or Fuzeon, first tested by amfAR researcher Dr. Carl Wild, is approved by the FDA, offering new hope to thousands of patients who are resistant to other anti-HIV drugs. (See 1993.)

UNAIDS and the World Health Organization announce the ‘3 by 5’ Initiative aimed at providing antiretroviral treatment to 3 million people worldwide by 2005.

U.S. YEAR-END STATISTICS

930,000 cases of AIDS reported to date
524,060 deaths