ATLANTA--Resolute in its decision to delay the release of alarming new HIV infection estimates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) kicked off the National HIV Prevention Conference amid widespread anger and concern that the nation may be losing ground in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

With speculation mounting about the motives and content of CDC's unreleased data, official speeches of compassion and urgency received polite applause from the hundreds of assembled participants who seemed either unmoved or unconvinced.

Remarks from the openly HIV-positive co-chair of the HIV Advisory Committee for CDC and HRSA electrified an otherwise sedated opening plenary. Acknowledging a need to voice what might otherwise not be said, Jesse Milan Jr. told the audience the time had come for the U.S. to develop a national strategy against HIV/AIDS-something federal contracts require of developing nations that accept U.S. taxpayer money for AIDS relief.

Increasingly, the call for a national AIDS strategy is emerging wherever the topic of HIV is discussed. In an era of sustained funding bans for proven effective interventions, such as sterile syringe availability and comprehensive sexuality education, the fledging campaign has become its own promising "structural intervention."

Inspired by an Open Society Institute report documenting the rationale and components an effective strategy development process, several leading AIDS organizations began promoting the idea among allied organizations earlier this year. The idea took hold like wild fire. More than 180 organizations and hundreds of individuals have endorsed the online "call to action" for a national AIDS strategy thus far.

Central components of the "call to action" specify that the federal government, working in close consultation with community stakeholders, should develop the nation's AIDS plan. The plan should be outcomes based with specific and measurable goals and explicit accountability mechanisms. Additionally, the plan should serve as a tool to promote unprecedented coordination and collaboration among various government agencies that would be required to provide regular progress reports to Congress, the president, and nation at large.

Democratic presidential candidates have embraced the idea. In his early HIV/AIDS announcement, former Senator John Edward pledged to "develop a National HIV/AIDS Strategy through an honest, comprehensive and fast-tracked process that involves stakeholders from the public and nonprofit sectors." Senators Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton soon followed suit.

"I will work to tie all of these efforts together and bring federal agencies to the table to develop a single, comprehensive national strategy, which will allow for better cooperation among programs that have been underfunded and downgraded during the Bush Administration," said Clinton in her AIDSVote questionnaire response. Just this weekend, for World AIDS Day, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson pledged to "appoint a Blue Ribbon Commission on HIV/AIDS, bringing together multiple stakeholders to develop a National Strategy for HIV/AIDS -- a strategy that ends our country's fragmented, uncoordinated approach to HIV/AIDS and that lays out a comprehensive solution for ending this epidemic once and for all."

Even the National Democratic Committee, led by Howard Dean and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, got into the action, releasing a World AIDS Day resolution consistent with front-runner candidates on the need for a national AIDS strategy.

It goes without saying that no strategy, no matter how well crafted, will generate its desired results without the necessary financial resources to back it up. Still, community activists and Democratic candidates--but still no Republicans--see the development of a national strategy as an instrumental starting point to spark progress against HIV/AIDS in America.

With www.nationalaidsstrategy.org, AIDS activists may have hit upon a viral marketing campaign that may finally stick.

By David Ernesto Munar of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago for Windy City Times and Identity (dmunar@aidschicago.org).