We’ve come a long way in HIV health care, but much more is still needed

I came to Baltimore as a medical student in 1995 in the midst of a raging deadly syndemic of substance use (heroin and crack cocaine), syphilis, hepatitis C and HIV infection. Toward the end of my four years of medical school, early, effective antiretroviral treatment “cocktails” became available, and the near certainty of death became less the norm and more an exception. For nearly two decades as an adult and pediatric infectious diseases specialist, I have provided HIV care to a majority Black patient population, spanning from infants to seniors, in Baltimore.