When the disease now known as HIV/AIDS was first making the news over 25 years ago, most cases were located in the United States. By 1998, the locus had moved to Africa. Today, the numbers are increasing in Asia and the Pacific. Click on the link or the image below to find out how the global face of HIV/AIDS has changed.

Target 7. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS Target 8. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases --UN Millennium Goals, 2000

The profiles of HIV/AIDS sufferers have also altered; women and children are making up an increasingly large proportion of those infected. The UN's Millennium Goals place combatting HIV/AIDS at number six, calling for halt and reversal within fifteen years. Find out more about the history of the epidemic through NOW's Aids Policy Timeline.

Paying for the Epidemic:

As the face of AIDS has changed, so have U.S. funding priorities. In the early years of the epidemic dollars were few, and spending focused on care. As time passed, more money moved into research and prevention. Today, as the number of HIV/AIDS cases have slowed and the benefits of new drugs are felt throughout the U.S., more money is being directed to international efforts. Click to find out more about HIV/AIDS spending priorities.

"I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean." - President George W. Bush, January 28, 2003

More money for international AIDS programs hasn't come without political controversy. Learn more about the debate surrounding President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.