Developing a Blueprint to Fight HIV some consider HIV and AIDS old news—a forgotten disease. But even though current treatments have made the disease less deadly, the lack of significant progress in reducing the number of new HIV infections has led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to broadly encourage more people to get tested regularly. HIV is still a global health threat. According to recent CDC statistics, in the United States there are more than one million people living with HIV, and of those, about one in eight don’t know they are infected. Undiagnosed HIV infections are responsible for nearly one-third of all HIV transmissions in this country. Reducing the spread of HIV depends on getting more people tested—and for those most at risk, getting them tested on a regular basis. To make it possible for individuals to be tested in their home communities throughout New Jersey, the New Jersey Department of Health, Division of HIV, STD and TB Services (DHSTS), established a Rapid HIV Testing initiative 12 years ago by funding an initial grant with Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Two associate professors in the department at the time—Evan Cadoff, MD, later professor and department chair, and Eugene Martin, PhD, now professor of pathology and laboratory medicine—served as codirectors of the program and together expanded it from a single location in New Brunswick to more than 70 throughout New Jersey. BY LY N D A R U D O L P H Robert Wood Johnson I MEDICINE 13