The terrible tale of AIDS victim Ryan White, and why $2.2 billion has been donated in his name

An astonishing $2.2 billion has been raised for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program in the past year — but perhaps not many today know the story of a teenager whose tragic death shook a nation.

Ryan White earned national public sympathy after he was kicked out of school in Kokomo, Indiana, after having been diagnosed with AIDS in December 1984 because of a contaminated blood treatment. He was only given six months to live at the time, and there was an ongoing national panic about AIDS that resulted in the knee-jerk reaction to boot him from school.

The HIV/AIDS panic was in full swing at the time, and Ryan White provided an opportunity to remove some of the stigma about those who had the disease, which had widely been seen as a problem for gay men.

But even though White didn’t pose much of a risk to the kids, parents and teachers in Kokomo were terrified of having him in school, and tried to prevent him from going back, saying that some children had accused him of threatening to use his saliva and blood to make them sick.

The massive legal battle that followed and media firestorm brought huge awareness to the plight of HIV and AIDS sufferers. Ryan White would live for more than five years after his diagnosis, passing away in 1990. The Ryan White Care Act would be passed shortly after his death.

And it’s also led to the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, which has been hugely influential in the fight against AIDS, both to help AIDS sufferers and reduce the cultural stigma about it.

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced this week that the program had awarded $2.2 billion in grants to cities and communities to provide support to those with the disease. She said that the program “has played a critical role in the United States’ public health response to HIV,” Burwell said in a statement.