Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD

Director

National Institutes of Health

9000 Rockville Pike

Bethesda, Maryland 20892

Anthony S. Fauci, MD

Director

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Building 31, Rm 7A03

31 Center Drive

Bethesda, MD 20814

Jack Whitescarver, PhD

NIH Associate Director for AIDS Research and

Director, Office of AIDS Research

Building 5635FL, Rm 4017

5635 Fishers Lane

Rockville, MD 20852

Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH

Director

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

1600 Clifton Road

Atlanta, GA 30333

August 16, 2013

Dear Sirs:

We are writing to express serious concern and dismay regarding the shutting down of the website for the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). Although we appreciate that you do not have control over business disputes, both the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are listed as scientific partners in this conference, and the financial and intellectual investments of publicly funded institutions and scientists have been vital to the success of CROI, rendering it perhaps the single most important annual HIV research conference. CROI has also been a pioneer in making webcasts, abstracts, and posters available via the conference website; this online information is now referenced and linked to by a vast number of scientific papers and online articles.

Due to the importance of the CROI website to HIV research, we urge you to do everything in your power to intervene and resolve the current, unacceptable situation. Whether by arbitration, negotiated settlement, or other means, it is essential that the CROI website be placed back online in a way that makes original links functional.

Sincerely,

ACRIA

AIDS Action Baltimore

AIDS Foundation of Chicago

AIDS Policy Project

AIDS Project Los Angeles

AIDS Resource Center Ohio

AIDS Treatment News

AVAC

Andrea Benzacar

Rob Camp

Community Access National Network (CANN)

Julie Davids

Anna Forbes

Foundation for Integrative AIDS Research (FIAR)

Nathan Geffen

Harm Reduction Coalition

HealthHIV

HIV i-Base

HIV Prevention Justice Alliance (HIV PJA)

Barbara Hughes

International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA)

John S. James

National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD)

National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC)

Ohio AIDS Coalition

Okaloosa AIDS Support & Informational Services (OASIS)

Project Inform

Robert Reinhard

San Francisco Department of Public Health

San Francisco Hepatitis C Task Force

Treatment Action Campaign

Treatment Action Group

WORLD (Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease)

cc.

Constance A. Benson, MD

Director, CROI Foundation

Kevin M. De Cock, MD

Chair, CROI 2014

Scott M. Hammer, MD

Vice Chair, CROI 2014

Donna M. Jacobsen

IAS–USA

John Mellors

President, CROI Foundation

Julie Overbaugh, PhD

Vice Chair, CROI 2014

Melissa Sordyl

Westover Management Group, Inc./CROI LLC