Twenty years of information,
advocacy and inspiration—1988

Project Inform achievements (1985–2004)     View PDF

Project Inform milestones:

• Expanded the Town Meetings Program to cities throughout the U.S.
• Handled more than 5000 calls to our Hotline monthly.
• Initiated productive meetings with research teams in Washington, DC and in academic centers.
• Became the first community organization invited to provide a plenary speaker (on patient access to experimental therapy) at the Society of Infectious Diseases Annual Meeting, a major medical conference.
• Became the largest and most widely read source of treatment information materials nationally.

Epidemic milestones:

• Largely as a result of the work of AIDS activists, the FDA implements new regulations designed to make promising therapies available sooner for patients with life-threatening and severely debilitating diseases.
• 4th International AIDS Conference is held in Stockholm, Sweden.
• U.S. Surgeon General and CDC mail brochure, “Understanding AIDS” to all U.S. households; first and only national mailing of its kind.
• NIH establishes Office of AIDS Research (OAR) and AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG).
• FDA allows the importation of unapproved drugs for persons with life-threatening illnesses, including HIV/AIDS.
• First comprehensive needle exchange program (NEP) established in North America in Tacoma, WA. New York City creates first government-funded NEP and San Francisco establishes what becomes largest NEP in the nation.
• World AIDS Day first declared by World Health Organization (WHO) on December 1.