§300cc–20 Additional Authority with Respect to Research

Summary

Allows the federal health secretary, working through the CDC director, to run ongoing national data collection on AIDS and the virus that causes it. The program can use representative samples and other methods and can be run directly or by contracts and cooperative agreements with public or nonprofit groups. The secretary must encourage each State to make agreements so up-to-date case data is collected quickly. Data must include who is affected, with demographic details and information on groups at higher risk. The secretary must ask experts to help create and use uniform collection methods. Results may be shared as often as needed to protect public health, and must be published at least once each year. Requires the secretary to build an epidemiological database and support long-term studies to learn who is infected, how the infection progresses, and to model long-term domestic and international spread. These activities can be done directly or by grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements with public or nonprofit groups, including federal agencies. The secretary may make grants for long-term treatment research based on the virus’s genetics and, through the NIMH director, for psychological and social science research about AIDS. Congress may appropriate whatever sums are needed each fiscal year, and funds for the genetic-treatment research must remain available until expended.