HIV and AIDS may have fallen from the glare of the media spotlight, but the virus and life-ending condition it causes continue to impact hundreds of lives in Washtenaw County.

To highlight how, the HIV/AIDS Resource Center is launching a new social media campaign on Sunday, which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the first reports of the disease.

On June 5, 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that described cases of a rare lung infection in five previously healthy, young gay men in Los Angeles, according to AIDS.gov. The men also had unusual infections that indicated their immune systems weren’t working, the site says. Within days, the CDC was flooded with similar reports from around the country.

Starting Sunday, a campaign on HARC’s You Tube, Facebook and Twitter pages will share stories of individuals living with HIV/AIDS in Washtenaw County, interviews with individuals who treat HIV/AIDS patients and attitudes about the disease within communities hit hardest, said Jimena Loveluck, the president of HARC.

“We want to ensure people know where to get services, how to get tested and where to go to get tested,“ she said. “Because there are so many options now as far as living with HIV and living a long life.”

In Washtenaw County, about 70 percent of an estimated 640 individuals living with HIV/AIDS are men who have sex with men. And half of those with the disease are black. Since 2007, half of new cases in Washtenaw County are people between the ages of 15 and 29.

The local statistics reflect national trends, Loveluck said.

HARC strives to educate the public and offer testing for the disease to help prevent its transmission, she said. About 56,000 people in the United States are infected with HIV each year, Loveluck said. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS, a condition marked by a weakened immune system that leaves the infected person vulnerable to other diseases and infections that will eventually take his or her life.

In addition to the social media campaign, the organization is hosting a health fair June 25, during which it will offer free, fast HIV testing from noon to 6 p.m. at the Parkridge Community Center, 591 Armstrong Drive, in Ypsilanti. Other groups participating in the health fair include Packard Health, Safe House, Planned Parenthood, the Lions Club, Transgender Michigan and the University of Michigan Black Medical Association.

HARC has roots that stretch back to the first years of the disease. Then, the detection of HIV was akin to a death sentence, Loveluck said. In 1986, a small group of volunteers directly affected by the disease banded together to help the HIV/AIDS community in Washtenaw County.

“Much of the focus was on taking care of people as they got sick,” Loveluck said. “Helping them at their homes, getting them to hospitals or hospice and doing education.”

The volunteers formed a center, which became a nonprofit in 1992. HARC has since expanded its reach to four counties.

Today, the nonprofit offers management and advocacy, food and basic supplies, mental health services, housing assistance, support groups and other services to an estimated population of 960 individuals living with HIV/AIDS in Washtenaw, Jackson, Livingston and Lenawee counties, Loveluck said.

But it serves many more individuals with education programs aimed at prevention, and anonymous, free HIV/AIDS testing.

Advances in treatment mean people are living long lives with HIV/AIDS, Loveluck said.

A recent large study by the National Institutes of Health and UNAIDS showed people taking antiretroviral treatment reduced the risk of HIV transmission from the treated partner to the uninfected partner by 96 percent.

There is still no cure.

Juliana Keeping covers general assignment and health and the environment for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528. Follow Juliana Keeping on Twitter