n June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a notice on page two of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report about a strange outbreak of killer pneumonia striking homosexual men. From that obscure beginning, AIDS grew into the public health disaster of our time, a global phenomenon that has tested social, cultural, religious and scientific beliefs. Twenty years later -- with expensive drug therapies but no cure or vaccine in sight -- AIDS continues to spread rapidly, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Many researchers warn that the worst is yet to come.  Paying the price of AIDS »

A global view of AIDS | Video Gallery | U.S. AIDS cases in downward trend

History
Living with AIDS for 20 years
Timeline
Related sites
Science
Company offers AIDS vaccine hope
Engine for medical advances
Flash: How HIV infects cells
What is a retrovirus?
Researchers and scientists
Treatments and vaccines
In 2001
China stops denying AIDS epidemic
Study: Black male gays hit hard by HIV
Funding the treatments
Diagnosis: AIDS then and now
A child's perspective
Medicine tough on children with AIDS
In Africa
AIDS sparks fears of devastation
A dream deferred: AIDS in Africa
TIME: Death stalks a continent
Flash: A continent in peril from TIME
International
A call for new AIDS strategies
U.N.: 70 million will die of AIDS by 2022