TR: At the International AIDS Conference on Tuesday, you unveiled a new, 20-year research study that shows a drastic decline in sexual-risk behavior among teenagers, especially black teenagers, between 1991 and 2001. But then those behaviors stabilized from 2001 to 2011. What was going on from 1991 to 2001 that changed over the past 10 years?

KF: In those first 10 years the conversation and awareness about HIV was much greater. The proportion of the American population who viewed HIV as a serious and urgent threat was much higher. Schools had lots of programs educating young people on HIV and sexual-health issues. And remember, in those 10 years we didn't have the sort of effective treatments that we have now. So there was a lot of fear there.

Over the past 10 years we've seen a number of changes. In our society we're not talking about HIV the way we used to. Data from the Kaiser Foundation suggest that only 6 to 8 percent of Americans view HIV as a serious public health threat.

Also in many schools across the country, we're seeing fewer with strong HIV-education programs and sexual-health programs. So that whole issue of sex education as well is changing in the U.S. as there's more pressure on school curriculum, and some states and jurisdictions have preferred to go with abstinence-only versus more comprehensive sex-education models. It's not my role to say which is better or worse, but it's clear that many of these changes can have an impact on whether we're able to give young people the skills they need to protect themselves.

TR: Going back to the government's new, more targeted and comprehensive approach to fighting HIV -- do you feel confident that these will actually turn the tide on the epidemic?

KF: I took over leading this center seven years ago. I remember thinking about the importance of us having a national strategy, of working across the U.S. government together in a more focused way. I envisioned a future in which there were new resources, new partnerships, more effective ways of delivering the tools we have for combating HIV. Now I feel like we're moving in the right direction.

We have a lot more to do. But now we have a road map and new resources. The Food and Drug Administration has been on a roll as well. They approved the first over-the-counter HIV test, and they recently approved the use of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, which is a drug you can take if you're HIV negative to prevent yourself from getting the virus. The landscape is changing very rapidly.

President Obama said last year that we're now at the beginning of the end of AIDS, and I firmly believe that we are. The key thing is to keep focused, renew that sense of urgency and continue to drive toward impact. And if it's not having an impact, let's use our resources differently until they do.

Cynthia Gordy was The Root's senior political correspondent.

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