HIV

The coronavirus pandemic feels eerily familiar to people who faced the AIDS crisis. It triggers memories of confusion over how the disease is transmitted and huge numbers of people dying quickly.

NPR's Scott Simon remembers AIDS activist Larry Kramer who died this week. He was 84.

New Yorker writer Michael Specter covered Fauci's early work in the AIDS epidemic. "He's always taken an open-minded approach to the problems," Specter says of the infectious-disease expert.

As we find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic, Paul Lisicky's memoir is deeply affecting; we can recall the terror and frustration when no treatment or prevention was available for AIDS and HIV.

Fewer than a third of the 220 counties deemed by the federal government as vulnerable to similar outbreaks have active syringe exchange programs which can stop the spread of the infection.

In more than 30 states, it is illegal for someone with HIV to have sex without first disclosing their status. Some are now trying to change that, arguing that those laws endanger public health.

The topics range from a ticking time bomb in the Arctic to the art of taking selfies in an ethical way. Here are the stories selected by our contributors.

For people at high risk of HIV, taking a daily dose of a prevention drug is essential. But many can't afford it. A new federal program makes the drugs available for free.

Thrive SS, an HIV support program by and for black men, credits its popularity to its grassroots approach. But the model, which focuses on forming a social networks, misses out on federal funding.

Doctors used to worry that antiretroviral drugs were too powerful for HIV-positive newborns. More evidence is emerging that, in fact, early treatment can be safe and effective.

Along the lakes of Malawi and Kenya, men catch fish and women sell the fish. But there's a controversial practice that's part of the business.