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The HIV/AIDS Programs: Who Was Ryan White?

 

Ryan White

Ryan White courageously fought AIDS-related discrimination and helped educate the Nation about HIV/AIDS.

 

Ryan White was an Indiana teenager with hemophilia who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion. He courageously fought AIDS-related discrimination and helped educate the Nation about his disease.

Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS at age 13. He and his mother Jeannie White fought for his right to attend school, gaining international attention. Ryan was featured on countless television shows and magazine covers and was the subject of a television movie about his life. Ryan White died on April 8, 1990, at the age of 18, just a few months before Congress passed the AIDS bill that bears his name-the Ryan White CARE (Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency) Act. The legislation has been reauthorized three times since-in 1996, 2000, and most recently in with the most recent 2006 enactment renaming the program as the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.

Ryan's mother, Jeanne White Ginder, continues to speak out about HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination. She has been a speaker at numerous event sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration's HIV/AIDS Bureau for programs funded to deliver Ryan White services. Read Mrs. White Ginder's letters to attendees at recent Ryan White Grantee Meeting and Clinical Update national conferences, including the 2006 and 2008 meetings.

Sources:
  The Living History
  ryanwhite.com Exit Disclaimer