Susan Ahlstrom is director and chief executive officer of HERO, an organization in Baltimore that provides health care, legal advice, substance-abuse counseling and other services to HIV- positive people. On the eve of the organization?s 25th-anniversary gala Friday ? featuring former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders as guest speaker ? Ahlstrom discussed the state of AIDS prevention in Baltimore ? the city with the second-highest rate of new infections in the country.

Why has AIDS been such a stubborn problem in Baltimore?