In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released guidelines for what we call post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP (not to be confused with PrEP!). Taking the medication for twenty-eight days can significantly decrease the risk of getting HIV, though it must be taken immediately, and absolutely within seventy-two hours.

In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Truvada, a once-a-day pill, for what we call pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP (not to be confused with PEP!). By taking PrEP daily, someone who is HIV-negative can reduce their risk of getting HIV sexually by up to 99 percent. Many people compare it to oral contraception or the birth control pill for women. It can also reduce the risk for people who inject drugs by more than 70 percent.

While our understanding of the virus and the factors that lead to its spread has evolved—and less complicated and more tolerable HIV treatment and new prevention tools and strategies are available—these advances did not simply happen; they were victories won through fierce activism, which demanded justice and an aggressive government response to match the aggression of a virus likened to a plague. Many notable activist groups were formed including ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), and Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD) to ensure that effective and safe drug treatment options were researched, produced, and made accessible to people living with the virus.

Faith leaders, nonprofit organizations, and politicians would later join the front lines of the AIDS movement and begin working on local and national levels to develop responses to an increasingly national and international public health crisis.

It is thanks to the bravery of these activists that we now have more tools and resources in our fight against HIV. And thanks to that progress, we are now able to have become even more aggressive in our fight to end this disease.

We have much more hope today. But not everything has changed.

We still do not have a cure. Treatment will keep someone living with HIV “undetectable,” prevent the virus from being passed on, and allow someone to live a long, healthy life. But there are still many challenges to living with HIV, and treatment is not accessible everywhere in the world. A cure is still very much needed.

We still do not have a vaccine. PrEP is a great new option, but it’s not always easy for everyone to obtain. If we want to reduce the nearly two million newly infected victims every year around the world, we need a vaccine.

And we still have enormous stigma.

What remains the same since 1983 is that HIV persists in communities that society and government marginalizes. Sex workers, drug users, people of trans experience, low-income communities, and people of color, particularly African Americans, are all disproportionately affected by this epidemic. Today, despite Black people being only 12 percent of the U.S. population, they account for more than 44 percent of new HIV diagnoses. Black people are more likely to die from AIDS-related complications than their white counterparts. While Latinx people in the United States account for about 18 percent of the population, they make up 26 percent of new diagnoses.