The Department of Health and Human Services is the cabinet-level agency with primary responsibility for most Federal government services related to HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and research. Leadership is provided by Secretary Donna Shalala.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supports an array of international research related to the treatment of HIV and AIDS.

CDC also helps to support research into HIV vaccines and prevention.

The Food and Drug Administration has a major role in the review of new drugs to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS-related conditions. The FDA:

• approves new therapies to treat HIV and AIDS, tests prevention products, and oversees clinical drug trials
• its Office of Special Health Issues maintains an HIV/AIDS web site with useful links to FDA services and information
• there is an excellent, comprehensive report on the impact of the new therapies in their newsletter, FDA Consumer
  

National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the lead agency in the Federal government that is responsible for searching for better treatments, a vaccine, and a cure (see our list of prevention links for information on NIH's prevention-oriented research).

NIH offers a one-stop guide to its HIV/AIDS information services

Coordination throughout the NIH is provided by its Office of AIDS Research (OAR) (see our information on NIH's AIDS budget)

• See OAR's Fiscal Year 2000 Plan for AIDS-related research (to see this file, you will need a free viewer)
• OAR also publishes a helpful list of AIDS-related acronym
• OAR has created a description of NIH's activities related to racial and ethnic minorities
• Finally, OAR has written an overview of NIH's research activities as they relate to treatment, prevention, vaccines, women, minority populations, and the impact of AIDS research.

The National Cancer Institute does research on HIV-related cancers and malignancies. Provides a broad range of information for patients, health care providers, and basic researchers.

The National Eye Institute does research on the ocular complications of AIDS.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is involved in:

• preventative HIV vaccine research
• Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group
• Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group

Complete information is available through its Division of AIDS.

The National Library of Medicine offers access to many different information sources on HIV-related research and treatment, including:

• Its Grateful Med which offers more than nine million citations to the biomedical literature of the world, from 1966 to the present.
• NLM also offers links to its information through a special HIV/AIDS site.

The AIDS Clinical Trial Service (ACTIS) provides information on clinical trials (research involving testing on humans)

The American Foundation for AIDS Research supports basic and clinical AIDS research, HIV prevention, and public policy advocacy.

The HIV/AIDS Treatment Information Service (ATIS) provides information about Federally-approved treatment guidelines for HIV and AIDS. This service is sponsored by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research at the Department of Health and Human Services.

The John Hopkins University AIDS Service provides comprehensive information on the treatment of HIV and AIDS-related conditions.

Project Inform is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco that provides individualized information on HIV and AIDS-related treatment. It can also be reached by calling their national hotline at 800-822-7422 (toll-free in the United States) or 415-558-9051 (in the San Francisco Bay Area or internationally). Hotline hours are Monday—Friday, 9am—5pm and Saturday, 10am — 4pm (Pacific Time).