In the early 1980s, men and women in the prime of their lives began arriving at Walter Reed Medical Center, wrecked by a disease for which we had no name, no cause and no hope. As an infectious disease doctor there, I saw patient after patient bedridden and dying by the time they reached my care.

Those early stages of the AIDS epidemic were marked by fear, confusion and stigma. Some doctors were even afraid to tell patients when they tested positive for the virus. It took years to understand what was happening, to learn that HIV infection was not merely a risk factor for AIDS, but the same disease at an earlier stage, and to encourage researchers to develop the multiple therapies necessary to control the disease. Now we know that HIV can be a manageable chronic condition when treated, and

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