Dr. Anthony S. Fauci's Statement for National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Last Sunday, September 27, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health, released a statement to acknowledge National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and research issues impacting gay men. To read the entire statement, visit the NIAID website.

Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Director of NIAID

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Gay and bisexual men have been active participants in HIV/AIDS research, including that funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. A good example is the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS), the longest U.S. study of people with HIV/AIDS and one of the most rigorous and productive epidemiologic HIV/AIDS studies in history. Gay and bisexual men also have participated in NIAID clinical trials of antiretroviral drugs that were essential to developing life-saving treatments now available to millions of people with HIV.

“Currently, gay and bisexual men are participating in NIAID’s first late-phase trial of a promising new HIV prevention method called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. The idea behind PrEP is that HIV-negative people at high risk of becoming infected with the virus could take antiretroviral medications that may protect them from infection.