Register Your Car and Your Commitment

Through June 1997, more than 100,000 people in California were diagnosed with AIDS, resulting in nearly 65,000 deaths. Since the beginning of the epidemic, nearly one-fifth of the U.S. AIDS cases have been reported in California.

Now there is a new tool in the fight against AIDS: a “4 A CURE” license plate with a distinctive red ribbon design. The plate will fund essential research to develop an AIDS vaccine.

The University of California has been at the forefront of AIDS medical research and treatment. Early on, UC recognized that it had an array of scientific resources and the moral responsibility as a public university to become involved in the fight against AIDS. The University-Wide AIDS Research Program, which will benefit from the AIDS license plate funding, was founded in 1983. Through this program, UC researchers have helped pioneer anti-viral therapies, developed strategies for combating HIV-drug resistance and led the seminal studies on cellular markers for immunity.

UC has played a significant role in many of the significant landmarks in the medical fight against AIDS. The first national report on AIDS was written in 1981 by a UC immunologist. In 1983, UC scientists were among the first to isolate the AIDS virus. That year, UC opened the nation’s first AIDS outpatient clinic and the first AIDS patient hospital ward at UC-affiliate San Francisco General Hospital. The first warning that AIDS could be transmitted through blood came in 1984 from UC doctors. This led to the UC development of a heat treatment for blood transfusions to kill the virus.

Nearly a decade later, UC researchers found a quick method to determine if infants were infected with the AIDS virus, using a test that separates the mother’s and infant’s antibodies to obtain accurate results.

In Southern California, the UCLA AIDS Institute coordinates more than 150 research projects on campus and in teaching hospitals throughout Los Angeles. The UC San Francisco AIDS Research Institute fosters innovative research to accelerate the discovery of new treatments and trains scientists to continue the work to prevent and treat HIV infection. UCSF works closely with communities to ensure that scientific news get out quickly to the people who need results the most.

UC’s approach is now the national and international model for combining research, treatment and social services for AIDS patients. Many important challenges remain. Beyond strategies for combating HIV’s resistance to drugs, our goal is an AIDS vaccine, now in the early stages of development and testing at UC medical research facilities.

Medical research dollars are tight. The license plate program is an opportunity to contribute to AIDS research. Of the initial $50 application, $37 goes to AIDS research, and all of the $40 annual renewal fee will go to research. Strong public support is required to raise the money needed to find the cure.