[Press kit]

sterile syringes in exchange for used syringes in order to reduce the transmission of HIV
that results from needle-sharing. This AmFAR-funded study, conducted by researchers at
the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, decisively established that syringe exchange
reduces HIV-transmission by 50%-without increasing injection-drug use. Numerous
groups, including the American Medical Association and the United States Conference of
Mayors, have joined AmFAR in supporting syringe exchange as a useful strategy for
controlling the spread of AIDS in cities with significant numbers of injection-drug users.
SAmFAR pioneered the concept of community-based clinical research in AIDS to give
patients access to experimental treatments, to speed the process of approval for new drugs
by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and to promote the involvement of primary
care physicians and the AIDS community in the development of the AIDS clinical
research agenda. As early as 1988, AmFAR funded the nation's first two AIDS-related
community-based clinical trials: one in New York City, the other in San Francisco.
Shortly thereafter, many of AmFAR's Community-Based Clinical Trials (CBCT) units
participated in trials that contributed to the FDA's approval of the first treatment for the
prevention of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), the opportunistic infection
responsible for the majority of AIDS-related deaths, as well as FDA approval of a
treatment for AZT-induced anemia.
S From the beginning of the epidemic, AmFAR has played a pivotal role in the
development of AIDS-related public policy. In 1984, Dr. Mathilde Krim testified before
Congress requesting support for AIDS research and treatment. AmFAR then agreed to
"lend" Terry Beirn, AmFAR's Program Officer, to the Senate Committee on Labor and
Human Resources; Mr. Beirn was instrumental in the development and passage of most
AIDS legislation until his death in 1991. The legislation that AmFAR has helped shape
includes: the 1988 AIDS Research and Information (HOPE) Act, which addressed the
need for both research and prevention and was the nation's first comprehensive federal
AIDS legislation; the 1990 Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Relief (CARE) Act, which
provides relief funding to cities and states; the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act,
which includes people with HIV infection among those protected from discrimination;
and the 1993 National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act, which reauthorizes the
National Institutes of Health and strengthens the planning and budget authority for the
Office of AIDS Research. Each of these important pieces of AIDS legislation was passed
by Congress following crucial work by AmFAR.
For the past decade, AmFAR has worked to expand the boundaries of understanding about
HIV/AIDS. It has done so by courageously sponsoring the work of scientific pioneers and
visionaries, championing patients' access to experimental treatments, promoting sound AIDSrelated policy proposals, and using scientific fact and sound public health principles to defeat
prejudice whenever it threatens the human rights of people with AIDS. AmFAR has been-and
will continue to be-an innovative force, acting with the speed and flexibility needed to meet the
shifting challenges of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.