One Teenager’s Battle To Attend School—And What It Tells Us About The Framing Of Disease

Health Affairs March 28, 2025
Erika G. Martin

In the late 1980s, Ryan White became a celebrity after his middle school banned him from in-person attendance following his AIDS diagnosis. At a time when there was substantial fear about the epidemic, discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS, and lack of basic HIV/AIDS education, he became the public face of the disease. Despite a slow initial federal response to the epidemic, the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resource Emergency (CARE) Act received near-unanimous bipartisan support in 1990.

Thirty-five years later, Ryan White’s legacy continues through this namesake funding source (now known as the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program) that provides critical access to medications, medical care, and social support services for low-income people with HIV/AIDS.

In The Life and Death of Ryan...

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