The battle against HIV/AIDS is about people.

And money.

And government.

Aligning those three elements has been a mission for a dedicated group of South Carolinians, including:

• Lynda Kettinger, a health department official who remembers the need to inform the public that you cannot get AIDS from a hug
• Bambi Gaddist, an advocate who pushed and pressured lawmakers
• Joe Neal, a state lawmaker moved to act by the impact of HIV/AIDS because of the death of a beloved cousin to the disease, and
• John Courson, a Republican state senator who ran counter to some colleagues to support people with HIV/AIDS

Their stories form this second installment of a four-day series — “Witnesses to an Epidemic” — by staff writer Czerne M. Reid and photographer C. Aluka Berry.